11 December 2006
A conference on the Holocaust has opened in Tehran in the presence of numerous revisionists and Holocaust deniers as Iranian officials vehemently claimed that it would not be an attempt to deny the World War II genocide but merely to discuss it in an "unrestricted atmosphere". The Iranian Foreign Ministry's Institute for Political and International Studies, which organizes the gathering, said it would attended by 67 "researchers" from around 30 countries. In his opening speech, the institute's chief, Rasoul Mousavi, said the conference would not seek to "deny or prove the Holocaust", adding that it was "to provide an appropriate scientific atmosphere for scholars to offer their opinions in freedom about a historical issue. He said the conference provided an opportunity to discuss "questions" about the Holocaust away from Western taboos and the restrictions imposed on scholars in Europe. Among the participants are French professor Robert Faurisson, who denies the existence of the gas chambers and was given a three month suspended sentence in France in October, and Fredrick Toeben, a German-born Australian who spent several months in a German jail for inciting racial hatred. He will give a paper on "The Holocaust: A Murder Weapon". Other prominent names on the program of scheduled speakers include David Duke, a US white supremacist and former Klu Klux Klan member who is due to give a speech entitled "Holocaust Inquiry".
Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki was scheduled to read a message to the conference from President Ahmadinejad, who has said that the killing of six million Jews by the Nazi German regime during World War II was a "myth" and "exaggerated." Ahmadinejad has repeatedly downplayed the Shoah, questioning why it has been used to justify the creation of Israel at the cost of Palestinian lands - a view popular among Iranian hard-liners. Iran has spent months preparing for the conference, even publicizing it during the September visit to Tehran of UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, who contradicted his hosts by saying the Holocaust was a historical fact and that an exhibition of anti-Holocausts cartoons, then on display in the city, promoted hatred. The conference has been condemned by Germany, where denying the Holocaust is illegal, as well as by Israel and the United States. The German government summoned the Iranian charg