TEHRAN – The Iranian Foreign Ministry has strongly criticized the United States for warmly welcoming “criminal” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite butchering and maiming tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since October 2023.

 “The criminal prime minister of a fake regime is embraced by his supporters after nine months of genocide and infanticide [in Gaza],” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani lamented in a post on X on Thursday, Press TV reported.

The visit disclosed decades of deceitful efforts by the so-called Western civilization to present an “innocent and humanitarian image” of Israel to the world and exposed the “callous and devil” face of the US policies to the entire world, Kanaani pointed out.

The ministry official also criticized the American and European leaders for crying out the “most ridiculous slogans” about human rights while the most basic rights of the Palestinians, including the right to life, security, access to water, food, medicine and treatment, are being violated in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in the most horrible way before the eyes of the world.

He added Palestinian children are being slaughtered every day by Israel as a “butcher” regime.

The diplomat went on to lambast the US administration and Congress for welcoming the Israeli “executioner” despite all these horrible acts in Gaza.

Netanyahu, who landed in Washington on Monday, addressed the US Congress on Wednesday and met senior American officials from both Democratic and Republican parties.

In his speech to Congress, Netanyahu defended the genocidal war in Gaza, called for “total victory” and lauded the US for its unwavering support.

He delivered the speech as massive protests were held outside the fenced-off Capitol, condemning Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinian people

Police used pepper spray against protesters who chanted “Netanyahu, you can’t hide. You’re committing genocide.” 

Netanyahu and his war minister Yoav Gallant are accused, among other war crimes, of “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” and “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population” in Gaza.

The Hague-based International Criminal Court’s chief has requested arrest against Netanyahu and Gallant for “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, the New York Times has reported that new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to drop the previous government’s objections to the ICC top prosecutor’s request for arrest warrant against Netanyahu. The Times citied two unnamed sourced briefed on the government’s deliberations.

The report comes days after the new Labour government announced it is resuming critical funding to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, which stopped in January after unproven allegations of “terrorism” were brought against its staff by Israel.

The US is now the only country maintaining its block on funding to the main agency delivering aid to desperate Palestinians in Gaza as Washington continues to oppose the ICC arrest warrant requests as well.