Rival criticizes Iranian President Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial

Sunday 17th May, 04:21 PM JST

TEHRAN —

A reformist challenger to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized the hard-liner’s denial of the Holocaust, saying it has served Israel’s interests and pushed the country deeper into international isolation, a newspaper reported Saturday.

Moderate cleric Mahdi Karroubi is one of two reformist candidates hoping to unseat Ahmadinejad in the June 12 presidential election. The former parliament speaker has said he would pursue a foreign policy of detente with the West and wouldn’t mind meeting President Barack Obama if it would help Iran’s national interests.

“Ahmadinejad offered the greatest service to Israel by raising the Holocaust issue because the whole world stood to support Israel,” Karroubi was quoted as saying by Etemad-e-Melli newspaper, which he controls.

The Iranian president has repeatedly claimed the Holocaust is a myth and even sponsored an international conference in 2006 to debate whether the World War II genocide of Jews took place.

Ahmadinejad has also called for Israel’s elimination, although his exact remarks have been disputed. Some translators say he has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” Others say a better translation would be “vanish from the pages of time”—implying Israel would disappear on its own rather than be destroyed.

The leading reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has similarly slammed Ahmadinejad for waging a fierce rhetorical battle with the international community, leaving Iran with few friends to help protect its interests.

“Today, excluding a few friends we’ve had for a long time, we have no appropriate interaction with the international community and are subject to threats,” Mousavi was quoted as saying by Aftab-e-Yazd newspaper.

Apart from Israel, Ahmadinejad’s most intense fight with the international community has been over Iran’s nuclear program. Iran says its nuclear efforts are peaceful and focused on producing electricity, but the U.S., Israel and many of their allies suspect the Iranians are determined to develop the capability to build atomic weapons.

Ahmadinejad’s hard-line stance has prompted the U.N. Security Council to impose three rounds of economic sanctions for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or an atomic bomb.

Many reformists and conservatives have criticized the president for spending too much time slamming the U.S. and Israel and not enough trying to fix the economy, which suffers from high inflation and unemployment despite huge oil revenues.

Mousavi said Ahmadinejad ignored economists who warned that the president’s plan to make direct cash contributions to the masses would worsen inflation and burn through oil revenues that the government relies on for 70% of its budget.

“When economic experts warned that liquidity resulting from oil revenues would cause problems, nobody heeded the warnings,” Mousavi was quoted by the paper as saying.

Ahmadinejad was elected in 2005 on a populist agenda promising to bring oil revenues to every family, eradicate poverty and tackle unemployment. The president has defended his cash distributions, saying they would create jobs. But Iran’s unofficial unemployment rate tops 30%.

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11 Comments

elbudamexicano at 09:37 PM JST - 17th May

Some Iranians are much smartter than George W. Bush! Here we can see that they also have intelilingent people in Iran who would like to have a decent conversation with Obama.
WilliB at 09:42 PM JST - 17th May

Interesting argument by Mahdi Karroubi. Note that he is not saying that Ahmedinejads holocaust denial is a horrific lie, bigotted and disgusting; no, all he says is that it served Israels interest. So, he would like to stop it, only to be more effective at working against Is... oops, the "zionist entity".

And that is all it takes to make him a "moderate cleric" for the Western media.
yabits at 11:13 PM JST - 17th May

And that is all it takes to make him a "moderate cleric" for the Western media.

Yet another American displaying total ignorance of the realities of Iranian society and politics.

For one thing, the Iranians know that other forces in the region present a much greater threat to them than does Israel. Behind the scenes, Iran and Israel have been known to cooperate on certain issues which affect their mutual concerns. That is the reality, and it is somewhat amusing to see how so many Americans fall for the window-dressing.
WilliB at 11:16 PM JST - 17th May

yabits:

" Behind the scenes, Iran and Israel have been known to cooperate on certain issues "

And where do you get that enticing bit of phantastic information from?

While the islamic republic of Iran is working to destroy the "Zionist entity", Israel and Iran are, in your expert opinion, cooperationg on what exactly??
yabits at 03:51 AM JST - 18th May

Tacit cooperation -- despite outward appearances -- between Iran and Israel has gone on for decades. It began under the Shah and continued under Khomeini. Just look at the involvement of Israel as the middleman in Iran-Contra.

The Wahabhi version of Islam -- as fostered by the Saudis and the Taliban -- is a mortal threat to both Shia Iran and Israel.

Ahmadinejad is just a convenient mouthpiece. Those who don't know any better take him far too seriously.
timorborder at 06:57 AM JST - 18th May

All the signs of a strong, vibrant democracy (lol). Actually, I think it is a good thing that the more moderate elements of Iran's religious leadership are taking pot shots at Ahmadinejad. On his economic track record alone, Ahmadinejad needs to be shown the door. Furthermore, in terms of the balance of power within Islam itself, I think it would be desirable if there were something to counter the influence of Saudi Arabia.
yabits at 08:20 AM JST - 18th May

Good points, timorborder.

Yes, there are idiots among the Shiites. Ahmadinejad is certainly one of the. But on the whole, Shia Islam is much more amenable to the philosophy of secular democracy.

http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/2677.cfm
Madverts at 12:06 AM JST - 19th May

Oh dear willi - an Iranian that doesn't fit the conspiracy!
Madverts at 12:07 AM JST - 19th May

"Ahmadinejad has also called for Israel’s elimination, although his exact remarks have been disputed. Some translators say he has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” Others say a better translation would be “vanish from the pages of time“—implying Israel would disappear on its own rather than be destroyed."

That's the first time I have actually seen this reported correctly. Well done JT.
FromEurope at 05:40 PM JST - 19th May

"Ahmadinejad has also called for Israel’s elimination, although his exact remarks have been disputed. Some translators say he has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” Others say a better translation would be “vanish from the pages of time“—implying Israel would disappear on its own rather than be destroyed."

That's the first time I have actually seen this reported correctly. Well done JT.

I don't think this is the correct translation. You can find many right translations on the net. :

"But just as the USSR disappeared, soon the Zionist regime will disappear," he said.

Ahmadinejad went on to say that “when I said the Zionist regime must be wiped off, the Zionist media of course harshly blasted me, but everyone must know that just as the USSR disappeared, this will also be the fate of the Zionist regime, and humanity will be free.”

Tehran, Dec 13: Iran's hard-line president said Tuesday that the Zionist regime will one day be "wiped out" as the Soviet Union was.
FromEurope at 05:50 PM JST - 19th May

Maverts

I should have said "I don't think this is the correct total translation"

Even the BBC wrote :

"Just as the USSR disappeared, soon the Zionist regime will disappear," he said to the applause of the participants.

But I guess you knew this. Sorry for commenting on your post.