The German government has condemned the remarks by Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and called on the United Nations as well as the EU to follow suit. Berlin says the comments will also weigh on talks over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
The EU summit beginning Thursday in Brussels will address Ahmadinejad’s statements “also at our urging,” Steinmeier said in the German parliament. The remarks showed “with how much irresponsibility and cynicism the Iranian government currently regards the situation of Israel and the Near East.”
“I say again: the government in Tehran must understand that the patience of the international community is not endless,” Steinmeier said.
Germany, along with France and Britain, has been leading diplomatic efforts to allay fears over Iran’s nuclear intentions. Later this month, Iran is due to resume negotiations the issue with envoys from the three countries.
Ahmadinejad first provoked an international outcry in October when he called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” He then expressed doubt about the Nazi destruction of European Jewry during World War II and went further Wednesday – saying that the Holocaust is a “myth” that Europeans have used to create a Jewish state in the heart of the Islamic world.
Denying the Holocaust is a crime in Germany.
