TEHRAN — Iran on Friday slammed US President Barack Obama’s speech on the Middle East as a sign of “despair” and “contradictions” in Washington’s policies in the region.

“The despair, contradictions and lies are visible in the speech by Mr Obama and his support for the Jewish state clearly shows the racist nature of US policy,” said Saeed Jalili from the Supreme National Security Council, the body which sets Iran’s national security policy.

Obama in his speech on Thursday mapped out a Palestinian, non-militarised state within the borders of before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

He said that “a lasting peace will involve two states for two peoples: Israel as a Jewish state and the homeland for the Jewish people, and the state of Palestine as the homeland for the Palestinian people, each state enjoying self-determination, mutual recognition, and peace.”

But Jalili, who is also Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, said that “the United States must know that all the land belongs to the Palestinians...this is what the region demands and we will accept nothing less.”

Iran does not recognise Israel’s right to exist and its animosity with the Jewish state has hardened under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has launched repeated tirades against Tehran’s arch-foe.

Israel, like the United States, has not ruled out a military strike against Tehran to stop its controversial nuclear programme.