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Iran’s Khamenei publishes Holocaust denying video as world marks Nazi genocide
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday questioned whether the Holocaust is “reality or not,” coinciding with International Holocaust Memorial Day.
Leaders and communities across the world yesterday remembered the millions killed by the Nazis on the anniversary of the liberation of the most notorious concentration camp, Auschwitz. Prime Minister David Cameron announced that a Holocaust memorial will be built in Westminster as “a permanent statement of our values as a nation.”
Meanwhile, a video published yesterday on Khamenei’s website questioned whether the Holocaust happened. The three-minute clip features a montage of images, including those of David Irving and other Holocaust-deniers, lamenting that “expressing doubts about it [the Holocaust] is considered to be a great sin” in the West. The video claims that, “No one in European countries dares to speak about Holocaust” claiming that “it is not clear whether the core of this matter [the Holocaust] is a reality or not. Even if it is a reality, it is not clear how it happened.”
Earlier this month, the Tehran Municipality launched its annual Holocaust denial cartoon contest, which offers a prize of tens of thousands of pounds. The Israeli media reported this week that United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) sent an official complaint to Iran over the contest.
Meanwhile, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani arrived in France on the next leg of his European tour, having visited Italy earlier this week. Rouhani is thought to be focusing on building trade and business ties following the lifting of nuclear sanctions earlier this month by both the United States and European Union. The move will free billions of pounds of Iranian assets, which Israeli leaders and others fear will be used by Tehran to increasingly fund terror proxies such as Hezbollah. This morning’s Times editorial warns UK business leaders to be “cautious” over Iran’s overtures as “so much of their economy” is part of a “business empire” belonging to Khamenei and Iran’s military.