Iran FM Javad Zarif under fire for calling Holocaust 'a tragedy'

[iandhr]

Source: Haaretz

Hardliners in parliament summon nukes negotiator to a closed session after he condemned the Shoah.

Islamic hardliners in Iran's parliament have summoned Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif over public comments condemning the Holocaust, the official news agency IRNA reported on Monday.

Zarif, who is also Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, caused an uproar among conservatives in Iran when he called the Holocaust a "horrifying tragedy" in an interview with a German television station late last month.

He is due to appear in a closed session of parliament on Tuesday in response to a petition signed by 54 lawmakers.

Holocaust denial has been a staple theme of public speeches in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took this further by calling Nazi crimes against Jews "a myth."



Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.576119

[leftynyc]

1. Maybe they'll cut off his head

for the crime of not being a lunatic.

[rafeh1]

2. why do they object to such a term

In fact the mass killing of innocent Jews, Poles, Russians and gypsies is much worse than a tragedy. Tragedy implies an accident whereas the Nazi killing was not in the least "accidental". It was systematic and planned elimination of "inferior races" inhabiting lands that the Nazi's coveted.

In fact Israel also covets lands occupied by Palestinians but Israel although racist is not anywhere like the mass killing Nazis. In fact Bashar Assad the Syrian ally of Iran is much more like the Nazi in doing mass ethnic killings of his enemies.

[Nye Bevan]

3. "Mass murder" is an appropriate term (nt)

[bananas]

4. They are holocaust deniers.

The article points out:

Holocaust denial has been a staple theme of public speeches in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took this further by calling Nazi crimes against Jews "a myth."