Iran’s Hard-Line Lawmakers Grill FM On Holocaust

FILE - In this Jan 24, 2014 file picture Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, gestures as he speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Iran's foreign minister said Monday Feb. 3, 2014 he is confid... FILE - In this Jan 24, 2014 file picture Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, gestures as he speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Iran's foreign minister said Monday Feb. 3, 2014 he is confident that his country will be able to forge a final agreement with world powers on its nuclear program by July 20. Mohammad Javad Zarif said a deal can be reached within the six-month deadline set when Iran agreed to halt its most sensitive uranium enrichment activities in return for an easing of Western sanctions. “We need to use the six months that we have in order to reach an agreement, because if we lose these six months the public momentum will swing to the other side," Zarif told an audience at the German Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank in Berlin. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File) MORE LESS

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Hard-line lawmakers have grilled Iran’s foreign minister on the official Tehran’s step-back from past policies of denying the Holocaust.

Mohammad Javad Zarif was summoned to parliament and questioned in a session that was broadcast live on state radio on Tuesday.

Zarif said that as long as he is foreign minister he will not allow Iran’s reputation to be damaged with statements about the “Holocaust denial.”

Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 prompted an international outcry when he called the Holocaust a “myth.”

His successor, Hassan Rouhani, a moderate, has offered outreach in place of saber-rattling and Holocaust denial.

The summoning and grilling of Zarif is apparently part of the hard-liners’ increasing pressures on the Rouhani administration.

After the questioning, the hard-line legislators said they were “satisfied” with Zarif’s “explanation.”

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  1. Ummm, what was his “explanation”???

  2. Zarif said that as long as he is foreign minister he will not allow Iran’s reputation to be damaged with statements about the “Holocaust denial.”

  3. So apparently, Iranian opposition hardliner legislators are easier to to satisfy than American opposition hardliners.

    That’s great. Another milestone for democracy in the new, improved Republic of Kochtopia f/k/a America.

  4. NCSteve – saw that, but it didn’t really seem to be an “explanation” that the hardliners would have been satisfied with (at least, as you pointed out, that hardliners here in the States would have been satisfied with)! Cheers!

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