The Iranian Foreign Ministry has said the “heinous and horrific” statements by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich about the killing of two million Palestinians by starvation “deserve international prosecution”, Al Jazeera reports.

“The statements of this member of the Zionist criminal gang are only a kind of public declaration and confession,” ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on X.

Kanaani also called on the European Union to “fulfil its international, moral and humanitarian responsibilities” against Israel and end political support instead of limiting itself by verbal condemnation of Smotrich’s statements.