IRAN: Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday that the Holocaust was a myth, triggering a fresh wave of international condemnation.
Mr Ahmadinejad had first suggested the killing of six million Jews by the Nazis was a legend last week, drawing a rebuke from the United Nations Security Council.
"They have fabricated a legend under the name 'Massacre of the Jews', and they hold it higher than God himself, religion itself and the prophets themselves," he told a crowd in the city of Zahedan yesterday. The speech was broadcast live on state television.
European countries called the remarks unacceptable and said they could undermine plans for talks with Tehran on its controversial nuclear programme.
Israel said the comments showed Iran's "rogue regime" was acting outside acceptable international norms.
"The combination of extremist ideology, a warped understanding of reality and nuclear weapons is a combination that no one in the international community can accept," said Israel's foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev.