Ahmadinejad: Holocaust a myth
- From: "Faris Jawad" <ana_faris_bila_jawad@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 09:54:40 -0500
Ahmadinejad: Holocaust a myth
Wednesday 14 December 2005, 15:53 Makka Time, 12:53 GMT
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, has again caused international
outcry by repeating his view that the Holocaust was a myth.
In a speech broadcast live on state television on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad
told a crowd in the southern city of Zahedan: "They have fabricated a legend
under the name Massacre of the Jews, and they hold it higher than God
himself, religion itself and the prophets themselves.
"If somebody in their country questions God, nobody says anything, but if
somebody denies the myth of the massacre of Jews, the Zionist loudspeakers
and the governments in the pay of Zionism will start to scream," he said.
Responding quickly to the comments, Israel urged the international community
to "open its eyes" to the Iranian regime and its nuclear programme.
"We hope these extremist comments by the Iranian president will make the
international community open its eyes and abandon any illusions about this
regime," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told AFP.
The European Union also added its condemnation, with Douglas Alexander,
Britain's Minister for Europe, saying the comments had no place in
international debate.
"The comments are wholly unacceptable and we condemn them unreservedly. They
have no place in civilised political debate," said Alexander, whose country
currently holds the EU presidency.
Speaking in Strasbourg to the applause of European parliamentarians, he said
that "the presidency has been unequivocal in its condemnation of the
comments attributed to President Ahmadinejad of Iran."
'Off the map'
The Iranian leader's comments come only days after his inflammatory
statements that the state of Israel should be moved to Europe.
The president, who said in October that Israel must be "wiped off the map",
said last week that if Germany and Austria believed that Jews were massacred
during the second world war, a state of Israel should be established on
their soil.
He was being interviewed on Al-Alam, an Iranian state satellite channel
while in Makka, Saudi Arabia, where he was attending a summit of the
Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
The remarks drew criticism from the UN, the UK and Germany, among others.
Ahmadinejad was elected as successor to Mohammed Khatami in June, and has
caused concern for some in the West with his hardline rhetoric.
Aljazeera + Agencies
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