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Iran Announces Conference to Study Proof of Holocaust

Posted on: Monday, 16 January 2006, 18:00 CST

By NASSER KARIMI

Iran announces conference to study proof of Holocaust

TEHRAN, Iran Iran announced plans Sunday for a conference to examine evidence for the Holocaust, a new step in hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads campaign against Israel one that was likely to deepen Tehrans international isolation.

Ahmadinejad already called the Nazis World War II slaughter of 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 it wasnt clear who would be willing to attend an Iranian-sponsored Holocaust conference.

Late last year, however, the leader of Egypts main Islamic opposition group joined Ahmadinejad in characterizing the Holocaust as a myth and lambasted Western governments for criticizing those who dispute the Jewish genocide happened.

Western democracies have slammed all those who dont see eye to eye with the Zionists regarding the myth of the Holocaust, Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohammed Mahdi Akef wrote on the groups Web site.

Tehran already had further raised international concern about its nuclear program last week when it resumed what it called research at its uranium enrichment facility.

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 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.

In calling for penalties against Irans irresponsible behavior, Republican Sen. Trent Lott pointed to Tehrans plans for the Holocaust conference.

At the minimum, we should go to the U.N. Security Council and we should impose economic sanctions unless there is some dramatic change in the Iranian position, he said on CNNs Late Edition.

Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., a Holocaust survivor who was born in Budapest, Hungary, also 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.

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.

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

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