Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Photo: Wikipedia.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called Israel a terrorist state in an open letter to Western youth, the Islamist Mehr News Agency reported on Sunday.

In the letter, which attempted to portray both Iran and the West as victims of terrorism, Khamenei lashed out at the West’s support of the “state terrorism of Israel,” in light of its actions in the West Bank.

“The oppressed people of Palestine have experienced the worst kind of terrorism for the last sixty years,” wrote Khamenei, claiming that Palestinian families could not even find security in their homes from the “Zionist regime’s death and destruction machinery.”

Though his letter cited Al-Qaeda, the Paris attacks and ISIS brutality, Khamenei asked rhetorically, “What kind of atrocious violence today is comparable to that of the settlement constructions of the Zionist regime?”

He claimed that Israel, unrestrained by its allies, demolishes the homes of Palestinians, robs them of their livelihood and routinely beats innocent Palestinians before “dragg[ing them] away to gruesome torture chambers.”

“In today’s world, do we know of any other violence on this scale and scope and for such an extended period of time?” Khamenei asked.

He continued, “Shooting down a woman in the middle of the street for the crime of protesting against a soldier who is armed to the teeth — if this is not terrorism, what is? This barbarism, because it is being done by the armed forces of an occupying government, should not be called extremism? Or maybe only because these scenes have been seen repeatedly on television screens for sixty years, they should no longer stir our consciences.”