Iran
to hold conference on the Holocaust
USAToday
January 16, 2006
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran said Sunday it would sponsor a
conference to examine the scientific evidence supporting the Holocaust,
an apparent next step in hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
campaign against Israel and a move likely to deepen Tehran's
international isolation.
Ahmadinejad already had called the Nazis' World War II slaughter of 6
million European Jews a myth and said the Jewish state should be wiped
off the map or moved to Germany or the United States.
Those remarks prompted a global outpouring of condemnation, and Tehran
further raised international concern last week when it resumed what it
called "research" at its uranium enrichment facility. (Related news:
Iran's leader shrugs off sanctions threat)
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. organization that
monitors nuclear proliferation, said Iran was resuming small-scale
nuclear enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for atomic bombs.
That, in turn, prompted Washington and its allies to renew their push
to take Iran before the U.N. Security Council for the possible
imposition of sanctions.
The United States, its European allies and Japan believe Tehran is
trying to build a nuclear weapon. Iran denies the charge and says its
nuclear program is only for electricity generation.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi did not disclose where or
when the Holocaust conference would be held, nor would he say who would
attend or what had prompted Tehran to sponsor it.
On Saturday, however, Ahmadinejad urged the West to be sufficiently
open-minded to allow a free international debate on the Holocaust.
Asefi adopted that theme.
"It is a strange world. It is possible to discuss everything except the
Holocaust. The Foreign Ministry plans to hold a conference on the
scientific aspect of the issue to discuss and review its
repercussions," Asefi told reporters.
Earlier this month, the Association of Muslim Journalists, a hard-line
group, proposed holding a similar conference, but Asefi said he was not
aware of the association's wishes. He said the conference he announced
was planned and supported by the ministry.
Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., a holocaust survivor who was born in
Budapest, Hungary, has said he understood Iran was considering a
conference that would call into question evidence that the Nazis
conducted a mass murder of European Jews during World War II.
Israel and Iran had good relations until the 1979 Islamic revolution
led by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini deposed Shah Mohammad Reza
Pahlavi. Israel had backed the shah, apparently prompting Khomeini to
term it the "Little Satan."
Ahmadinejad has adopted rhetoric reminiscent of Khomeini, seemingly
trying to breathe life back into the waning revolutionary spirit in the
country, whose residents are not traditionally anti-Jewish.
Before the revolution about 100,000 Jews lived in Iran, but
three-fourths fled during the upheaval.
Ahmadinejad, who took office in August, caused an international outcry
in October by calling Israel a "disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped
off the map."
Leaders around the world also condemned him after he called the Nazi
slaughter of Jews during World War II a "myth." He later said that if
the Holocaust did happen, then Israel should be moved to Germany or
North America, rather than making Palestinians suffer by losing their
land to atone for crimes committed by Europeans.
Since the Islamic revolution, Israel has considered Iran a primary and
existential threat. As Tehran's nuclear program has moved forward, the
Israelis — who have nuclear weapons but do not to admit possessing such
an arsenal — have refused to rule out using military force to destroy
the Iranian program.
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