- BERLIN (Reuters) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Germans
they should no longer allow themselves to be held prisoner by a sense of
guilt over the Holocaust and reiterated doubts that the Holocaust even
happened.
-
- In an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel
magazine, Ahmadinejad said he doubted Germans were allowed to write "the
truth" about the Holocaust and said he was still considering travelling
to Germany for the World Cup soccer tournament.
-
- "I believe the German people are
prisoners of the Holocaust. More than 60 million were killed in World War
Two ... The question is: Why is it that only Jews are at the centre of
attention?," he said in the interview published on Sunday.
-
- "How long is this going to go on?"
he added. "How long will the German people be held hostage to the
Zionists?... Why should you feel obligated to the Zionists? You've paid
reparations for 60 years and will have to pay for another 100 years."
-
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel and
other leaders have said his previous remarks questioning whether the Holocaust
happened were unacceptable. Denying the Holocaust is a serious crime in
Germany punishable with a prison term of up to five years.
-
- Six million Jews were killed by the
Nazis and their allies in concentration camps.
-
- In the rare interview with Western media,
Ahmadinejad said if the Holocaust really happened Jews should be moved
from Israel back to Europe.
-
- "We say if the Holocaust happened,
then the Europeans must accept the consequences and the price should not
be paid by Palestine. If it did not happen, then the Jews must return to
where they came from."
-
- WORLD CUP
-
- He said he was still considering going
to Germany to support Iran in the World Cup despite protest stirred by
a "worldwide network of Zionists".
-
- Iran's first World Cup match is against
Mexico in Nuremberg on June 11 two days after the tournament starts and
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble says he would be welcome to
come because Germany wants to be a good host.
-
- The invitation sparked protests from
other political leaders and groups who said his anti-Israeli comments were
unacceptable.
-
- "My decision (on whether to go)
depends on a lot of different things," said Ahmadinejad, a soccer
fan. "Whether I have time, whether I want to and some other things."
-
- He said he could not understand why
his possible visit had caused such debate but was not surprised by the
row.
-
- "I was not at all surprised because
there is a very active worldwide network of Zionists, also in Europe,"
he said in the rare interview with Western media that was published on
Sunday.
-
- Ahmadinejad's latest comments were condemned
by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. Rabbi Marvin Hier, a founder
and dean, called on Merkel to keep him out of Germany.
-
- "On a day when the Pope is in Auschwitz
to remind the world of the horrors of the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad questions
it again," Hier said. "For him to be at the World Cup and sit
in a VIP seat would be a desecration of the memory of the Holocaust."
-
- Asked by Der Spiegel, in its cover story
entitled "The man the world is afraid of", whether he stood by
his earlier view the Holocaust was a myth, Ahmadinejad said: "I only
accept something as the truth if I am truly convinced of it.
-
- "In Europe there are two opinions
on it. One group of researchers who are by and large politically motivated
say the Holocaust happened. There is another group of researchers who have
the opposite view and are by and large in prison for that."
|