Iran's envoy to Portugal questions Holocaust
Iran's ambassador to Portugal told a Portuguese radio interviewer it would have taken the Nazis 15 years to burn the corpses of 6 million people, a remark reflecting the denials of the Holocaust made by his president.
"When I was ambassador in Warsaw, I visited Auschwitz and Birkenau twice and made my calculations," ambassador Mohammed Taheri said in an interview with Portuguese state radio RTP on Tuesday.
"To incinerate 6 million people, 15 years would be necessary," he said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has repeatedly denied that the Holocaust, the Nazis' killing of 6 million Jews during World War Two, took place. He has also called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
More than 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, died at Auschwitz-Birkenau, a death camp set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland.
"When our president wants to talk about the Holocaust with historians and scientists, the whole world is against him," Taheri said, referring to plans by Ahmedinejad to organize an academic conference on what happened in the Holocaust.
"Historians need to get together to give their opinions," the envoy added.
Taheri said the publication by European newspapers of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, outraging many Muslims and provoking widespread protests, was an Israeli conspiracy designed to cause conflict between Muslims and Christians.
"We think that this is a conspiracy by Zionists who want to put Muslims against Christians in Europe," he said.
Iran's best-selling newspaper, Hamshahri, has responded to the Muslim outrage over published cartoons of the Prophet by organizing a competition for cartoons about the Holocaust, saying it is a test of the West's vaunted freedom of speech.
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