Yair Lapid speaking at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel in 2018. Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said on Tuesday that Iran will fail to destroy his country, after his Iranian counterpart issued the latest in a long string of threats against the Jewish state.

“The extremist Iranian regime threatens Israel with annihilation but will continue to lose this battle,” Lapid wrote on social media. “Their failed leadership is destroying Iran from within. In the words of the Iranian poet Saadi: ‘He whose essence is evil, will forever remain so.'”

His remarks, which were posted in English, Hebrew, and Persian, came after Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian tweeted on Monday, “We will forcefully and rationally defend the rights, interests and progress of the Iranian people,” according to a translation by Tehran Times. “Zionism has no place in the future of the world.”

The online exchange took place after Lapid indicated in a Friday interview that Israel has the military capabilities to target Iran’s nuclear facilities and weapons sites. “Israel will do whatever it needs to do to protect its security,” he reiterated, and said the country does not require external permission to act.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Iran on Tuesday that time was running out to salvage its 2015 nuclear accord with major powers. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he spoke with Johnson about the ongoing talks to revive the nuclear deal, which resumed in Vienna on Monday. Israel has opposed the 2015 pact, saying it failed to block Iran’s path to nuclear weapons capability and strengthened the regime.

“Iranians should know that it is their regime that is making their lives miserable,” Lapid tweeted Tuesday. “The State of Israel is strong and will not allow its citizens to be harmed.”

Iran often threatens to destroy Israel and funds terrorist groups that share its ethos, like Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In November, a top spokesperson for the Iranian military pledged, “we will not back off from the annihilation of Israel, even one millimeter.” In 2020, Iran’s supreme leader denounced Israel as “a deadly, cancerous tumor” that will “be uprooted and destroyed.”