Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that the United States is the Middle East’s main enemy, with the “Zionist regime” a close second.

Speaking at a meeting in Tehran on Sunday with the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Ramadan Abdullah, Khamenei said that looking at the turmoil in the region in a “macro” sense, the US was clearly to blame, with Israel following closely behind. PIJ is an Islamist terrorist organization.

In comments carried by Iranian websites, some of which were then posted to Khamenei’s Twitter page, the Iranian leader unleashed a series of anti-US and anti-Israel remarks.

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Khamenei, said Iran’s Mehr News agency, “reaffirmed that with this perspective in regional issues, Iran sees the United States as main enemy with the Zionist regime standing behind it. He pointed to extensive, unprecedented sanctions of US and its followers against the Islamic establishment in recent years and dubbed the objective of them as discouraging Iran from continuing its path; ‘but they failed to achieve their goals and will fail in future as well’.”

The ongoing unrest in the Middle East, Khamenei alleged, is a continuance of the “war” waged on Iran by US-led Western governments since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 “and the Palestine issue is the key issue,” Khamenei tweeted.

Huge ongoing war in region is continuance of the war waged against Islamic Republic of Iran 37 years ago& #Palestine issue is its key issue. — Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) May 1, 2016

The Iranian leader said Iran was backing embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad “because those standing against Syria are in fact enemies to core of Islam and serve the interests of the US and Zionist regime.”

Because those standing against #Syria are in fact enemies to core of Islam and serve interests of the US and Zionist regime. 2/2 — Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) May 1, 2016

In yet another swipe at the US, the Iranian supreme leader said an “arrogance front” has tried to portray the unrest in the region as a power play between Shia and Sunni Islam but that “clash is a colonialist, US plot.”

The supreme leader further said that “defending Palestine” was an Iranian duty that also symbolized “defending Islam,” and vowed to keep supporting the Palestinian cause.

As from the beginning Islamic Republic of #Iran has considered support for #Palestine as its duty, it will fulfill this duty in future, too. — Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) May 1, 2016

“From the beginning, the Islamic Republic of Iran has considered support for Palestine as its duty, it will fulfill this duty in future, too,” Khamenei tweeted.

Khamenei also praised Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, whose forces have been fighting alongside Assad’s military in neighboring Syria, saying surely Israel was “scared of Hezbollah more than in the past.”

For his part, Abdullah thanked Khamenei for Iran’s support of the “Palestinian resistance” and congratulated the Iranian leader on the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, which was marked in February.

Khamenei and Abdullah last met two years ago, several months after the end of the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas and other Gaza-based terror groups. PIJ publicly thanked Iran for its support during that war.

The US and Iran are in the process of implementing an historic nuclear deal signed last year between Tehran and the US-led P5+1 world powers which would see Iran curb its atomic ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief.