Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Photo: Wiki Commons

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday in a televised speech marking the Iranian New Year that if Israel attacked its nuclear facilities, Iran would “raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground.”

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also said the threat of an Israeli attack is “not big enough to stand out among the Iranian nation’s enemies,” according to Reuters.

Khamenei’s remarks came as U.S. President Barack Obama visited Israel, where Obama said Thursday that America “will do what we must to prevent a nuclear Iran.” Obama in Israel added, however, that the U.S. remains focused on diplomacy and sanctions as the preferred solutions to the Iranian threat before a military option is necessary.

Talks between Iranian officials and officials from the six global powers—the U.S., France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany—will continue in April in Almaty, Kazakhstan.