Enlarge imageBERLIN (Reuters) - Remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Holocaust was a myth stirred fresh uproar on Wednesday, and European countries said they could undermine efforts to end a row over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Ahmadinejad, who said last week that he doubted the killing of six million Jews by the Nazis, strengthened his comments on Wednesday.
"They have fabricated a legend under the name ’Massacre of the Jews’, and they hold it higher than God himself, religion itself and the prophets themselves," he told a crowd in the southeastern city of Zahedan.
Germany said the comments could weigh on attempts to revive nuclear talks between the European Union and Tehran.
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Germany, Britain and France, negotiating for the EU, had tentatively planned to hold talks later this month on the nuclear programme, which Iran says is only for generating electricity. Washington accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear bombs.
Israel said the comments showed a "rogue regime" was acting outside acceptable international norms.
Ahmadinejad, elected president in June, called in October for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and on Wednesday reiterated his view that Israel should be moved from "dear Palestine" to Europe, America or Canada.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Ahmadinejad’s remarks were "shocking and unacceptable".
"I cannot deny that they may weigh on our bilateral relations and naturally also on the chances for the negotiations on (Iran’s) so-called nuclear dossier," he told reporters.
France, Germany and Britain have been trying to persuade Tehran to give up sensitive nuclear technology in return for political and economic incentives. The talks broke down in August after Tehran resumed processing of uranium.
OUTRAGE
Though Iran says it has a sovereign right to a civilian nuclear programme, the EU says it must renounce all sensitive nuclear technology to reassure the international community that it is not seeking atomic bombs.
"Such interventions will do nothing to rebuild confidence in Iran’s intentions," European Commission spokeswoman Emma Udwin said, describing Ahmadinejad’s comments on the Holocaust as "completely unacceptable".
Poland said it was particularly concerned about the president of a member state of the United Nations questioning another country’s right to exist.
"In Poland, where the Nazis committed the crime of the Holocaust, the remarks of the Iranian president are causing even more outrage," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Austria also said it was unacceptable to question Israel’s right to exist.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said Ahmadinejad’s comments showed "a warped understanding".
"The combination of extremist ideology, a warped understanding of reality and nuclear weapons is a combination that no-one in the international community can accept," said spokesman Mark Regev.
South Africa’s Jewish Board of Deputies said that "in the year 2005 such hatred has no place in international politics."
"We view this as nothing short of anti-Semitism," its director, Yehuda Kay, said.
