Berlin, Germany: Iran’s Dr. Muhammad Javad Ardashir Larijani denies Israel’s right to exist and the Shoah at a Berlin conference
During a Transatlantic Conference on the Middle East organized by the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt Iran’s former deputy minister of foreign Affairs, Dr. Muhammad Javad Ardashir Larijani, said that “Israel represents a plan to create a Jewish State in the heart of the Muslim world and that this Zionist plan has failed terribly and only caused horrible damages” and that “denial of the Holocaust in the Muslim world has nothing to do with antisemitism.”
He also spoke about a “new Holocaust” happening now in Gaza. Syrian, Lebanese, and Saudi Arabian speakers also attacked Israel at the conference which was intended to be a conference on anti-missile defense systems.
According to the “Financial Times Germany” Larijani was invited to speak at the suggestion of the German Foreign Ministry. The event was sponsored by the Berlin representative from the State of Hessen, the German Protestant Church (EKD) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES),an affiliate of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The “Financial Times Germany” reported that the conference was also sponsored by the European Recovery Program (ERP), which is administrated by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. The German Foreign Ministry denied that they co-sponsored the conference.
Sources: Financial Times Deutschland, 06-27-2008; ynetnews.com, 06-26-2008; jpost.com, 06-29-2008
