The Fars news agency, which is close to the office of Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that Ahmadinejad had proposed the idea after his comments calling for Israel to be moved to European countries such as Germany and Austria drew international outrage and United Nations Security Council condemnation.
Mohammad-Ali Ramin, who heads the state-run body Society for Defending the Rights of Muslim Minorities in the West, told Fars that Ahmadinejad wanted European governments to permit Western scholars to publish their research on the Holocaust.
Ahmadinejad wanted the committee to clarify the real extent of the Holocaust, according to Ramin, who added that the radical President had the support of hard-liners loyal to the Supreme Leader.
Senior officials inside the clerical establishment including Khamenei himself have backed Ahmadinejads threatening remarks against the Jewish state.