He's actually pretty clear about what he means. The whole interview is quite interesting and well worth reading.
...the supreme leader's-- Twitter page has, quote, "This barbaric wolf-like and infanticidal regime of Israel which spares no crime, has no cure but to be annihilated." Mr. Foreign Minister, can you understand why Jews and others would take umbrage at that kind of language?
ZARIF: No, I won't. Because this is a regime. We're talking about Mr. Netanyahu, who has-- butchered-- innocent children in Gaza. We are not talking about annihilation of Jews. We never have, we never will. Because if we wanted to annihilate Jews, we have a large number of Jewish population in Iran who not only live in the country in peace, but, in fact, have a representative in Iranian parliament allocated to them, disproportionately to their number. Every 150,000-- Iranian Muslims has a representative in the parliament, whereas less than 20,000 Jews in Iran have a representative in the parliament.
So we're not about annihilation of Jews. We have a history of tolerance and cooperation and living together in coexistence with our own Jewish people, and with-- with Jews everywhere in the world. If people want to-- espouse fear mongering to fan such hysteria in the world, that's-- to their detriment. We have said, and we will continue to say, that the regime is a threat to regional peace. This is the only regime with nuclear weapons. This is the only regime that has aggressed upon all of its neighbors, has-- gobbled territory of-- of its neighbor, is occupying people's territory, is violating human rights on a daily basis. It has destroyed-- villages in retribution. The-- we're not talking about-- about a normal situation. We're talking about the oldest crisis in our region, which has persisted. He cannot hide behind the smoke-- this smokescreen-- of-- of trying to portray Iran as a threat and, at the same time, try to hide the crimes that they are committing in Gaza against innocent people. Thousands of people were driven out of their homes because of Israeli bombardment, just a few month ago. And this was the repeat of what happened a couple of years ago. And that was the repeat of what happened a couple of years prior to that.
So this is a-- his-- I mean the-- almost become, unfortunately-- a practice that has been going on in-- in our region for a long time. And that is one of the most important breeding grounds for terrorism and extremism in-- in the region. The sense of deprivation and degradation that the Palestinians feel in our region has been the cause of a great deal of anger in the Islamic world and beyond, even in Europe.
CURRY: So how does Iran want to annihilate the regime of Israel, since you're making the difference?
ZARIF: We don't want to annihilate. We don't want to--
CURRY: Well, the Supreme Leader--
ZARIF: --annihilate anybody.
CURRY: --tweeted that--
ZARIF: We have-- the-- well, what he says--
CURRY: --it should be annihilated.
ZARIF: It-- it should be annihilated. That this regime is a threat, is a threat. A regime that engages in the killing of innocent children, a regime that engages in acts of aggression. Iran has not invaded any other country. We have not threatened to use force. Just exactly the opposite of Israel. Israel threatens to use force against Iran almost on a daily basis. And it has a record.
Of course if they did use force against Iran, we would-- defend ourselves, as we have done with-- great sacrifice in the past. But we are not invading, we are not threatening anybody. We have not threatened anybody for 250 years. We have a record to prove of what we say. He doesn't. He has a record full of infanticide, full of killing of innocent people, full of aggression against his neighbor, full of occupation. That does not give him the authority to talk about others in the way he does.