Iran Focus: London, Dec. 15 United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described remarks by Irans hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in which he called the Holocaust a myth as completely outrageous. Iran Focus
London, Dec. 15 United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described remarks by Irans hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in which he called the Holocaust a myth as completely outrageous.
Speaking on the Sean Hannity Radio Show on Wednesday, Rice said the remarks were having the effect of further isolating the Iranian regime.
Nobody thinks that the president of any civilised country should talk this way, and I can’t imagine that Iranians want to hear their President talk this way, she said.
The Secretary of State said that Ahmadinejad was sharpening the contradictions between Tehrans behaviour and views and the civilised world.
Ahmadinejad said Wednesday the Holocaust was a “myth” that Europeans had used to create a Jewish state in the heart of the Islamic world, and called for Jews to be moved from the Middle East to Europe, the United States, Canada, or Alaska.
Speaking at a gathering in the southern Iranian town of Zahedan (Sistan va Baluchestan Province), he said, Today, they have created a myth in the name of Holocaust and consider it to be above God, religion and the prophets.
The Europeans say that during the Second World War six million Jews were killed, and they are determined in their claims to the point that even when scientists question them they deal with such scientists and jail and punish them, he added.
Rice refused to answer a question about whether she foresaw an Israeli attack on Irans suspected nuclear weapons facilities. Well, I can’t speculate on how this might all play out. I think our goal has to be, as a civilised international community, to just condemn this and to take it as a warning about the Iranian regime and about its policies, and to make certain that they are not going to get a nuclear weapon.
She hinted at Tehrans nuclear file being referred to the United Nations Security Council following repeated threatening comments by Ahmadinejad against the Jewish state. In October the hard-line president had called for Israel to be wiped off the map. I remember what the Russian Foreign Minister said when one of the first of these came out. He said that this has given a lot of ammunition to people who want to take this issue to the Security Council. Well, absolutely. If Iran keeps behaving in this way, we’re not going to have any choice and they aren’t demonstrating any willingness to actually negotiate.
I think the fact is Iran is just getting more and more isolated, and we’re going to have to act on that sooner or later, Rice said, adding that a nuclear-armed Iran would be enormously dangerous.
