Iran's IRNA news agency is quoting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Israel will disappear from the world map soon.

Ahmadinejad spoke Monday at a ceremony honoring the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

According to IRNA, Ahmadinejad said that "criminal and terrorist Zionist regime" with a track record of "60 years of plundering, aggression and crimes ... has reached the end ... and will soon disappear from the geographical" charts.

Known for vitriolic anti-Israeli rhetoric, Ahmadinejad prompted international controversy when he called in 2005 for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

After coming to power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Khomeini cut relation with Israel and called it an illegitimate entity.