Berlin - Former Deputy Minister of Iranian Foreign Affairs Dr. Mohammad Javad Ardashir Larijani gave a speech Wednesday at an international conference calling for the cancellation of the “Zionist project”, which he said turned in the past 60 years into a “failed plan” that “created only violence and atrocities.”
Mohammad Larijani is the brother of Ali Larijani, chairman of the Iranian parliament and formerly the top negotiator on issues of national security, including Iran's nuclear program.
Mohammad is presently the director of the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics in Tehran and member of the Iranian Human Rights Committee.
The conference was organized by a local foundation for peace and conflict resolutions.
It was “generously” funded as described in the event’s program, by the German government, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation connected to the German Social-Democratic party and the German Protestant Church.
Governmental offices in Germany quickly rushed to clear themselves of responsibility for the event. The conference’s invitation reveals that the event was sponsored by the German Foreign Ministry. However, in response to an inquiry by Yedioth Ahronoth, the ministry’s spokeswoman said that the Finance Ministry subsidized it.
An examination on Wednesday into which office really did fund the event yielded no answers. In response to Yedioth Ahronoth’s questions regarding what problem Iran has with Israel and if Iran is fearful of Israel, Larijani responded, “We have no problem with Israel, we have a stance.
“We think that Israel represents a plan to create a Jewish State in the heart of the Muslim world and that this Zionist plan has failed terribly and only caused horrible damages.”