Foreign minister Javad Zarif met today with “Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy” and tried to dissipate concerns about his policy. In an interview with Fars news agency, Hossein Naqavi, the committee’s spokesman recounted Zarif’s response to the question about Holocaust:

“One of the Committee members criticized Zarif’s declarations about Holocaust and asked why he has taken these unacceptable positions. Zarif responded: I believe that in response to questions about Holocaust, we should not talk about holocaust itself and instead, we should ask them why the Muslims and Palestinians should pay for the killing of some people during the world war.”

Zarif’s response to the committee reflects his past efforts to not answer directly questions about Holocaust. For example, in 2006, while Zarif was speaking at Columbia University, one of the student asked: “Do you personally believe that 6 million jews died in Holocaust?”

Zarif responded: “The question that needs to be asked is that what is the crime committed by the Palestinians in that atrocities.”

According to Fars news, the members of Majlis committee were not convinced by Zarif’s response. The reason could be Zarif’s  interview with ABC network on September 29, when he declared that the Supreme Leader Khamenei had not called the Holocaust a myth. When the ABC journalist told that the Supreme Leader’s English website has posted his speech in which he called the Holocaust a myth, Zarif responded that the Leader has been mistranslated.

Obviously, Zarif’s lie satisfied the American journalist, but has brought trouble for him at home. In fact, Supreme Leader has repeatedly called the Holocaust a myth and the Holocaust denying is an integral part of the regime’s policy to nourish anti-Semitism and intensify anti-Israeli crusade.

After Zarif’s interview, newspapers in Iran blasted his position that clearly distorted the Supreme Leader’s declarations.

Hassan Dai (Daioleslam) is a human rights activist, political analyst and editor of the Iranian American Forum. He is well-published in Farsi and English and frequently appears as an expert guest on the Voice of America and major Persian language media.