British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday condemned dismissals of the Holocaust by ”revisionist” historians at a conference being staged in Iran as ”shocking beyond belief”.
”I think it is such a symbol of sectarianism and hatred towards people of another religion, I find it just unbelievable,” he said. ”I found that this conference that they had questioning the Holocaust is shocking beyond belief.
Tehran was on Tuesday pressing on with a controversial conference on the Holocaust where a host of Western ”revisionists” cast doubt on whether the mass slaughter of six million Jews in World War II took place.
The event, which comes after Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeatedly cast doubt on the truth of the Holocaust, has caused an international outcry and accusations Iran was promoting Holocaust denial.
The day’s proceedings were to include more papers from the participants, including a former Ku Klux Klan member, an Australian who denies the existence of gas chambers and a Frenchman given a suspended jail term in October.
”If you’re going to invite the former head of the Ku Klux Klan to a conference in Tehran, which disputes the millions of people who died in the Holocaust, then what further evidence do you need to have that this regime is extreme?” said Blair.
”I don’t believe, incidentally, that it’s supported by the majority of Iranian people but it’s a deeply extreme regime that is hostile to our interests,” he added.
Blair was speaking at a monthly press conference at his Downing Street office in London. — AFP
