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| UN chief slams any conference casting doubt on Holocaust
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UN chief Kofi Annan
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NEW YORK (AFP)--- UN chief Kofi Annan deplores any conference that would seek to cast doubt on the reality of the Holocaust, his spokesman said Thursday, referring to Tehran’s planned symposium on the issue next week.
"The Secretary General personally believes that any attempt to cast doubt on the reality of this unique and undeniable horror must be firmly resisted by all people of goodwill and of whatever faith," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a press briefing.
Iran said on Tuesday that more than 60 researchers from 30 countries would attend a conference next week to examine the Holocaust without any "preconceived ideas".
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mohammadi said the symposium planned for Monday and Tuesday was in response to the lack of answers to questions posed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Ahmadinejad has repeatedly raised questions about the scale of the Holocaust and even described the mass slaughter of six million Jews in World War II as a "myth".
Annan, who is to step down from his post at the end of the month, "would deeply deplore any conference whose purpose is to question or deny the reality of the Holocaust," Dujarric said. "Only a year ago the (UN) General Assembly passed a resolution which rejects any denial of the Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or part."
The spokesman said Annan raised the issue with Ahmadinejad when the two met in Tehran in September.
He recalled that the outgoing secretary general also voiced "shock" last year when the Iranian leader called for Israel "to be wiped off the map".
The 192-member UN General Assembly resolution designated January 27 as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
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