Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Rouhani unexpectedly condemns Holocaust

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

Rouhani unexpectedly condemns Holocaust
Handshake or no handshake with President Obama, Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, on his visit to the New York UN General Assembly, has unexpectedly broken with his predecessor by condemning the Nazi Holocaust. Rouhani's condemnation has been seen as part of a 'charm offensive' that has left Israel isolated.The Times of Israel reports:

Hasan Rouhani, the Iranian president, interviewed on CNN, September 24, 2013 (photo : YouTube screenshot)

In a major break from his predecessor, Iranian President Hasan Rouhani on Wednesday condemned the Holocaust as a crime against humanity in a CNN interview with Christiane Amanpour.

“I am not a historian and when it comes to speaking of the dimensions of the Holocaust it is the historians that should reflect,” Rouhani said during his visit to New York, choosing not to relate to the scope of the Holocaust.

“But in general I can tell you that any crime that happens in history against humanity, including the crime the Nazis created towards the Jews, is reprehensible and condemnable,” CNN translated the newly elected president saying.

Earlier in the evening, before the interview aired on the US cable news channel, Rouhani spoke at length about “violence and extremism” and his country’s nuclear program before the UN General Assembly.
Rouhani’s predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, repeatedly during his eight-year, two-term presidency, derided the mass murder of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany as a “myth” and a “great deception of the Holocaust” generated by Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli delegates to walk out of the UN General Assembly during Rouhani’s speech. He later defended his decision, saying their presence “would have given legitimacy to a regime that does not accept that the Holocaust happened and publicly declares its desire to wipe Israel off the map.”
As Israel’s prime minister, he said, “I won’t allow the Israeli delegation to be part of a cynical public relations charade by a regime that denies that Holocaust and calls for our destruction.”

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