TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Tuesday that leaders of the Zionist regime see their survival in portraying others as a threat.

“Heads of the Zionist regime of Israel see survival of their illegitimate regime, which is based on lies, in portraying others as threat through using the ‘worn-out charlatanism of ignorance age’ whose futility is obvious more than ever,” Qassemi said in a statement.

His comment came as a response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s televised address on Monday about the 2015 nuclear deal.

Netanyahu claimed that Israel had obtained tens of thousands of pages of what he described as Iran’s “secret atomic archives” which proved that Iran had developed a nuclear weapons plan, which could be activated at any time.

Qassemi said that Netanyahu’s move was a “farcical propagandistic show” and described it as desperate measures of a “liar” who has nothing to present but “lies”.

Zarif likens Netanyahu to a ‘boy who cried wolf’

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has likened Netanyahu to a “boy who cried wolf”.

“The boy who can’t stop crying wolf is at it again. Undeterred by cartoon fiasco at UNGA,” Zarif tweeted on Monday. “You can only fool some of the people so many times.”

Former Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt also said Netanyahu’s televised speech about Iran’s nuclear program contained “nothing really new.”

‘IAEA found no evidence Iran had hidden nuclear weapons program after 10 years of study’

Iran’s Ambassador to the UK Hamid Baeidinejad also on Tuesday dismissed claims by Netanyahu, saying that after 10 years of study the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found out that Iran’s nuclear program had not been diverted a weapons program.

“All documents presented by Netanyahu were available and known to the IAEA which after a comprehensive ten years study found no indications of Iran having conducted activities linked to a nuclear weapons program,” Baeidinejad tweeted.

The former nuclear negotiator added according to these studies the UN nuclear watchdog decided to close the issues in 2015.

“IAEA decided accordingly to permanently close the issue in 2015,” he explained.

Claims by the Israeli prime minister came less than two weeks before Donald Trump decides to stay in the 2015 nuclear deal or not. Analysts say Netanyahu’s remarks are not coincidental; rather, they say, the hawkish prime minister’s claims are intended to put pressure on Trump to get out of the multinational agreement. 

John Kerry, the top U.S. diplomat when the nuclear deal was negotiated, on Tuesday to defend the agreement. Kerry warned that any effort to "blow up the deal" could cost visibility into Iran's nuclear program.

“Blow up the deal and you're back there tomorrow!” Kerry warned.

He added before the conclusion of the nuclear deal “more and more centrifuges were spinning each month” in Iran.

Under the nuclear agreement, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran agreed to scale back its nuclear activities in exchange for termination of nuclear related sanctions.

Earlier on Tuesday, another former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, told "CBS This Morning" it wouldn't be "the end of the world" if the Trump administration pulls out of the deal.

‘Zionists have lost hope to rule the region’

Ali Akbar Velayati, a top foreign policy adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, told reporters on Tuesday that the reason behind Netanyahu’s remarks is that the Zionists have lost hope of controlling the region.

“In fact, the [main] reason behind using these words is that the Zionist regime has lost its hope for survival [and] those who support the Zionist regime in the region have tried to distance themselves from these words due to their obscene nature,” Press TV quoted Velayati as saying.

NA/PA