TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Friday his country was not calling for the destruction of the Jewish people but believed people of different faiths should decide Israel's future.
"Calling for the elimination of the State of Israel does not mean the elimination of the Jewish people," the official website quoted him as saying at an Islamic conference in Tehran.
Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran has refused to recognize Israel and supports armed Palestinian resistance groups, while Israel has long accused Tehran of seeking to destroy it and sees it as its main enemy in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Khamenei criticized Western powers for pressuring Tehran over its nuclear program.
"All countries need peaceful nuclear energy, but Western monopolists are seeking to keep this energy in a state of monopoly," he said. "The West knows we are not seeking nuclear weapons because of our principles and beliefs."
Iran repeatedly denies seeking to build a nuclear bomb, citing a decree issued by Khamenei in the early 21st century banning the development or use of nuclear weapons.
France, Britain and Germany said this week they were deeply concerned about Iran's decision to resume uranium enrichment, but stopped short of directly calling for new sanctions.
The Iranian move was the latest in a series of moves beyond the limits of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, in response to the US withdrawal from the deal last year and reimposed US sanctions.