After Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran publicly said the holocaust never happened, and that Israel should be wiped off the map and moved to Europe, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a statement.
Mr. Annan said he was shocked, especially considering that the UN General Assembly had only last month passed a resolution that rejects any denial of the Holocaust.
The Secretary General urged all UN member states to actively work to combat the denial of that historic event, in which six million Jews, one-third of their number, died. He said not only Jews died in the Holocaust, members of many other minority groups also died.
Here is the full text of the Secretary General’s statement, as read by his spokesman.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan statement
The Secretary-General was shocked to see the remarks attributed to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in which he reportedly cast doubt on the truth of the Holocaust and suggested that the State of Israel should be moved from the Middle East to Europe.
The Secretary-General recalls that only last month the General Assembly passed a resolution which “rejects any denial of the Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or in part.” He urges all Member States to combat such denial, and to educate their populations about the well established historical facts of the Holocaust, in which one third of the Jewish people were murdered, along with countless members of other minorities.
He also recalls his statement of 27 October, in which he reminded all Member States that Israel is a long-standing Member of the United Nations with the same rights and obligations as every other Member, and that, under the United Nations Charter, all Members have undertaken to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State.
Editor’s Note: In 2012 Ahmadinejad was sticking to the same line: Iranian President’s Anti-Israel Remarks Draw Condemnation. This time the condemnation came from Ban Ki Moon, the current UN Secretary General.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed a demonstration. He told the people there that there was no place for the Jewish state in a future Middle East.
