Iran: Europe wanted to complete Holocaust
Hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said Nazis’ attempt to eradicate Jews in Holocaust was a ‘myth,’ now charges that European countries sought to complete genocide by establishing Israel, a Jewish state in the midst of Muslim countries
“Don’t you think that continuation of genocide by expelling Jews from Europe was one of their (the Europeans’) aims in creating a regime of occupiers of Al-Quds (Jerusalem)?” the official Islamic Republic News agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
“Isn’t that an important question?”
'Anti-Semitic sentiment was a European tradition'
Ahmadinejad said Europeans had decided to create a “Jewish camp” as the best means for ridding the continent of Jews and said the camp, Israel, now enjoyed support from the United States and Europe in what he termed the slaughter of Muslims.
Last month, Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust, in which Nazi Germany killed six million Jews, was a myth. After global outrage over the comments, he said that Europeans, if they persisted in reality of the slaughter, should cede some of their territory for a Jewish state.
In October, Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be “Wiped off the map.”
The fiery Iranian president said anti-Semitic sentiment was a strong and long-term European tradition while Jews had lived peacefully among Muslims for centuries.
According to the ISNA news agency, Ahmadinejad said the crimes committed by Zionists against the Palestinians were the same as the crimes committed by the Nazis in the Second World War.
“The one question to be clarified by the West is what crimes did they commit in those days (World War Two) what the Zionists are not doing today,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by ISNA.
'They have shot two targets with a single bullet'
The Iranian president said Judaism should be distinguished from Zionism, asserting that Jews in Islamic countries like Iran have always lived in security with religious freedom and will do so in the future.
“Zionism is a western ideology and an imperialistic idea created by the Britons which follows secular aims and fascist methods and is currently killing Muslims with the help and direct lead of the United States and parts of Europe,” the president said.
Ahmadinejad said that the question is why the Europeans are afraid of holding a debate on the ‘human tragedy’ and consider it a red line.
"Why don't the Europeans who perpetrated the crime pay the price themselves?" the Iranian president asked.
President Ahmadinejad said that when he saw the angry reaction of the Europeans to his statement about the Holocaust, he asked himself whether the needle had struck their sensitive nerve, adding that the Europeans, by expelling Jews from Europe and deporting them to occupied Palestine, actually committed an anti-Semitic act.
"In fact, the Europeans have practiced ethnic cleansing against the Jews in Europe by expelling the Jews from all the European states," he said.
"They have shot two targets with a single bullet: They have built a Jewish camp among the Islamic nations and got rid of the Jews from the whole of Europe. The Zionist regime is a part of Europe, which was broken away from Europe, and is anti-Islamic in nature."
Also on Sunday, Iran warned of a "crushing" response if its nuclear and military facilities were attacked by the U.S. or Israel.
Top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said, however, that talk of such an attack most likely was "psychological warfare."
"Iran has prepared itself ... They will get a crushing response if they make such a mistake," Larijani said on state-run television late Sunday.
