Sunday, January 29, 2006

Iran Invites Blair for Holocaust Conference

The Times of India:
Iran on Sunday called on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to attend its scheduled Holocaust conference in Tehran. "I suggest it would be good for Blair to attend the Holocaust seminar or send some articles," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi told reporters in Tehran. His statement was in reference to Blair condemning the scheduled conference as "shocking, ridiculous, and stupid."

"Blair can hear here (in Tehran) issues which he cannot hear over there (in London)," Assefi said. READ MORE

Assefi has earlier blasted Blair's comments as "blind fanaticism" and accused the West of trying "to block a scientific research on the Holocaust claims and efforts to search for the truth."

The Iranian foreign ministry plans to hold a "scientific seminar" on the Holocaust to clarify its "real dimensions". The date of the conference has not yet been disclosed...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked international outrage after he called for the eradication of Israel, branded the Holocaust a "fairly tale" and demanded relocation of Israel to Europe or America.

Holocaust is the term generally applied to the mass extermination of six million Jews in Europe by Nazi Germany during the Second World War (1939-1945).