Others questioned why he had met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose controversial attempts to overhaul the judiciary has led to mass street protests. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran’s clerical establishment has refused to recognize Israel. Some senior leaders have called Israel a “cancerous tumor” that should be destroyed. Tehran has also been accused of providing material support to Hamas, the Palestinian extremist group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU. Israel, meanwhile, has been accused of carrying out sabotage and cyberattacks against Iranian nuclear and military sites and assassinating Iranian scientists, engineers, and military personnel in recent years.
