Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told  Hebrew-language Maariv News that Iran considers that war with Israel has “already started.”

“The war with Israel has already started,” Khatibzadeh said. “Israel has carried out attacks that were intended to destroy our nuclear program for peaceful purposes. It murdered nuclear scientists and harmed the Iranian people. Iran is accused of terrorism, but there is no good or bad terrorist. The whole crisis in the region is Israel’s fault.”

Khatibzadeh also accused Israel of interfering to prevent the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear agreement with the US.

“Israel has severely damaged our research and civilian system,” he said. “There is talk of an Iranian nuclear threat, but Israel has hundreds of bombs, and it has never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.”

He also accused the US of “soft terrorism” by holding up medicine and starving the people of his country.

In a separate statement, Khatibzadeh condemned a meeting between the Bahraini government and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid taking place today.

“We condemn any scheme that bolsters Israel’s destructive presence in the region,” Khatibzadeh said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency. “It is unfortunate that Bahrain’s rulers ignore the Zionist regime’s daily crimes against the oppressed but resilient people of Palestine,” Khatibzadeh said, referring to Israel. “This stain will not be erased from the reputation of Bahrain’s rulers. The people of the region will continue to oppose the process of normalisation of ties with the Zionist regime.”