While in Mecca for talks with leaders of fellow Muslim countries on Thursday, Ahmadinejad denied that German dictator Adolf Hitler had ordered millions of Jews to their deaths during the Holocaust, and called for the state of Israel to be moved to Europe.
These remarks are yet another data point in assessing the attitudes and policies of the Iranian regime, U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.
In October, Ahmadinejad told an anti-Zionist gathering that Israel must be wiped of the map, and threatened Muslim nations that develop ties with the Jewish state. His comments drew outrage across the world and were condemned by the United Nations Security Council.
These latest remarks, which we’ve seen reports of, are clearly both appalling and reprehensible, Ereli said.
They certainly don’t inspire hope among any of us in the international community that the government of Iran is prepared to engage as a responsible member of that community. And they are, again, you know, part of a — what appears to be a consistent pattern of rhetoric that is both hostile and out of touch with values that the rest of us in the international community live by.
This statement, which is egregious and offensive, is a statement by the president of a country, a country that belongs to international organisations, has pledged to uphold international norms and needs to be judged by and held to those standards.
At the White House, Bush Administration spokesman Scott McClellan swiftly reacted to Ahmadinejads comments by saying that it further underscores concerns about the regime in Iran. It’s all the more reason why it’s so important that the regime not have the ability to develop nuclear weapons.
