Khamenei Calls U.S. the ‘Great Satan,’ Says Israel Won’t Exist in 25 Years

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the U.S. the “Great Satan” and threatened the future existence of Israel in a series of sharply-worded tweets Wednesday morning, just hours before Congress was set to open debate on Iran deal resolutions.

Iranian nation did expel this Great Satan; we barred their direct access and now we must not allow their indirect access and infiltration.

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) September 9, 2015

Emphasizing his point with a graphic, Khamenei suggested threateningly that it doesn’t matter what Israel thinks about the long-term prospects for the Iran deal since, in his view, “God willing,” the Jewish state will no longer exist in 25 years.

After negotiations, in Zionist regime they said they had no more concern about Iran for next 25 years; I’d say: pic.twitter.com/dBA7oAbFPX

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) September 9, 2015

Khamenei accused the U.S. of being two-faced in its dealings with his country, while he assured Iranians that negotiations with the U.S. would not lead to an “infiltration and imposition of their [U.S. officials’] wills” on Iran.

Revolution’s Leader addressing visiting people: US officials do not hide their enmity; one smiles and the other ratifies acts against #Iran.

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) September 9, 2015

He also insisted nuclear negotiations would not pave the way for talks on other issues.

“We allowed negotiation with U.S. only on nuclear issue for certain reasons, in other areas we did not and will not allow negotiations with U.S.,” Khamenei said.

The quotes posted on Twitter were excerpts of a speech by Khamenei to a gathering of thousands at a Tehran mosque Wednesday, Iran’s IRNA news agency reported.

The Iran deal was set to take center stage in Washington Wednesday, where beyond lawmaker talks, a large anti-deal rally was planned outside the Capitol. Planned speakers for the rally include Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Glenn Beck.

Also on Wednesday, Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton was set to deliver a speech at the Brookings Institution in support of the Iran deal, President Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy initiative.