The Zionists control the world and are the source of all evil in it, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday in the latest of his regular diatribes against Israel.

In a speech delivered in Tehran to ambassadors from Islamic countries ahead of Quds Day (Jerusalem Day), an annual anti-Zionist event created by Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini in 1979, Ahmadinejad said, "All those who love freedom and justice must strive for the annihilation of the Zionist regime to make the world more just and free."

In his speech, Ahmadinejad addressed the question, "What should be done to cut the root of the world's problems?"

"For 400 years the revolting Zionist tribe has been controlling the world's affairs and pulling strings behind the scenes in politics, the media, and the financial sphere," Ahmadinejad said, as quoted by the IRNA news agency. In an apparent reference to the upcoming U.S. elections, he said, "They [the Zionists] are the decision-makers, to the point where presidential candidates of a superpower of 300 million people have to go kiss the feet of the Zionists in order to ensure their victory in the elections. If the votes [of all the citizens in the superpower] are so important, why must a candidate go kiss the feet of the secret Zionist minority, thereby sacrificing their dignity and the values of their country?"

According to Ahmadinejad, Israel represents Zionism, and it is Zionism that runs the world. "The Zionist regime is as much a symbol of Zionist hegemony in the world as it is a means of oppression by the world's superpowers," he said. "There are profound differences between Western governments, but all are united in supporting the Zionist regime."

If people want to change this global decision-making process and achieve justice, "they should unite behind the ultimate goal: the annihilation of the Zionist regime," the Iranian president said.

“Quds Day is not just a strategic solution to the Palestinian problem — it is to be viewed as a way for solving the world's problems," he said. He also said that Arab countries such as Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Syria and Turkey had been affected by Israel's "plots" in the region.

Ahmadinejad has called for Israel's annihilation in the past, notably in his 2005 speech when he said in Farsi that Israel should be "wiped off the map."

The Anti-Defamation League blasted Ahmadinejad's comments on Thursday, saying, his "call for the annihilation of Israel is 'ominous' in light of Iran's continuing march toward nuclear weapons."

"These remarks, filled with anti-Semitism and expressions of contempt for Israel and its leaders, are a hallmark of the hate-filled and irrational nature of the Iranian regime," ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman was quoted in a press release as saying. “In his bluntness, Ahmadinejad cuts through the false dichotomy of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism when he uses the term 'Zionist' to describe alleged Jewish control of the world for 400 years."

Meanwhile, Iranian officials have reportedly called on Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah to leave Lebanon and come to Iran amid concerns over his safety if and when the Assad regime in neighboring Syria falls.

According to a report in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa that quoted Iranian officials, Tehran has already prepared a plan to evacuate Nasrallah, along with other Hezbollah officials in Lebanon, and Revolutionary Guard officers currently stationed in Syria, should Assad's regime collapse.

Under the plan, on the day that Assad falls, Iran will send Revolutionary Guard reinforcements to Syria and transfer stockpiles of weapons to Hezbollah to strengthen its hold over Damascus.

According to the report, the entire Lebanese Bekaa Valley is controlled by Iran, and Lebanese army forces are not allowed to operate there without the consent of the Iranians.