Netanyahu says 'good riddance' as Iran's Javad Zarif resigns

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said "good riddance" on Tuesday after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif abruptly announced his resignation.

"Zarif is gone. Good riddance," Netanyahu said of the lead negotiator of Iran's landmark 2015 nuclear agreement with major powers that he had bitterly opposed.

"As long as I am here, Iran will never acquire nuclear weapons," Netanyahu tweeted.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, commenting on Zarif's resignation, said "we'll see if it sticks."

"Our policy is unchanged - the regime must behave like a normal country and respect its people," he said.

Zarif and Netanyahu traded barbs at a high-profile security conference in 2018, with the Israeli premier comparing Iran to Nazi Germany.

Zarif called Netanyahu's speech a "cartoonish circus" after the Israeli leader brandished a piece of an Iranian drone allegedly shot down over its territory.

Iran denies any ambition to develop an atomic weapons capability and says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.

Netanyahu has pledged to stop Tehran from entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria and Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes against what it says are Iranian and Hizballah targets there.

Iran is the main backer with Russia of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his country's nearly eight-year civil war.