United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hit out at Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran today.

At the summit, Mr Khamenei called Israelis “ferocious Zionist wolves who digest the Palestinian people” and labelled the UN Secretary Council an illogical, unjust and defunct relic of the past used by the United States and Zionists “to impose its bullying manner on the world.”

He also accused the United States of talking about human rights “when what they mean is Western interests. They talk of democracy when what they have is military intervention in other countries.”

Mr Ban, who controversially decided to attend the summit despite the Islamic Republic’s growing nuclear programme and its routine calls for the destruction of Israel, defended Israel. He said: “Claiming that Israel does not have the right to exist or describing it in racist terms is not only wrong but undermines the very principle we have all pledged to uphold.”

Mr Ban added, “I reject any threat by any UN member state to destroy another or outrageous comments to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the summit, which drew more than 120 countries to Iran, “a disgrace and stain on humanity.”