Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered two speeches on the week of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, calling the remembrance of the massacre of millions of Jews "exaggerated," and tagging Israel a "filthy Zionist regime."
Addressing students and faculty at a Holocaust conference at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran on January 27, Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was "exaggerated" as a pretext to "expand the domination of the victors, particularly the US and Britain, in the international arena." He also said that "the illegitimate Zionist regime is an outcome of the Holocaust," stating that while many millions of people died in World War II, the Jews used the Holocaust as a way of massacring indigenous Arabs, evicting them, and establishing a Jewish state in Palestine.
Today, the Zionists dominate many of the world's centers of power, wealth, and media
"The filthy entity of the Zionist regime is not the sole fruit of the Holocaust," Ahmadinejad told attendees. "Today the Zionists dominate many of the world's centers of power, wealth, and media. Unfortunately, they have ensnared many politicians and parties, and they are plundering the wealth and assets of nations in this way, depriving peoples of their freedoms and destroying their cultures and human values by spreading their nexus of corruption."
The Iranian president also argued that Islamic civilization and culture are threats to the West, "which [is] based on oppression and thirst for power."
In an interview with Iranian news channel IRINN the following day, Ahmadinejad continued his diatribe against Israel, Jews, and the Holocaust, including that the United States's new president must remove the US military presence from bases around the world.
Accusing the US of plundering Iran and destroying Iranian culture, Ahmadinejad referred to Obama's platform in demanding that the US apologize to Iran. "To those who are saying that they plan to make changes - change means asking forgiveness from the Iranian people, and trying to make amends for their black past, and for the crimes they have committed against the Iranian people."
Referring to the recent war between Gaza Arabs and the State of Israel, Ahmadinejad alluded to his involvement in arming the terror group Hamas, stating ""If the Iranian people was not bound by political and geographical constraints, it would have been ready to defend glory, honor, and human dignity alongside the people of Gaza."
Excerpts of both speeches can be found at the Middle East Strategic Information (MESI) website, mesi.org.uk.