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Iran invites Blair to Holocaust conference

Updated: 29/Jan/2006 17:15

Britsh PM Tony Blair

Photo: The Council of the European Union

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Iran on Sunday invited British prime minister Tony Blair to Tehran to take part in a planned conference on the Holocaust, branded a "myth" by the Islamic republic's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

”It would be good for Mr Blair to participate in the Holocaust seminar in Tehran,” foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.

"He can also contribute with an article. If he wants to defend the Holocaust in that article, he can do so. We will give him the time to read out his article so others can hear his point of view," Asefi said, adding the conference was slated to take place in "the coming pring".

A British embassy spokesman in Tehran declined to speculate on whether the PM would be willing to attend, but promised that "if we get a formal invitation, obviously we'll pass it on to Number 10," in reference to the prime minister's London residence at 10 Downing Street.

“Rediculous” conference

Blair has already lashed out at the planned Holocaust meeting as "shocking, ridiculous, stupid," and said Ahmadinejad "should come and see the evidence of the Holocaust himself in the countries of Europe".

"In Mr Blair's speech there was an invitation for the Iranian president to go there and see the places close up. We have to see when the president has time for it," Asefi said of Blair's suggestion.

Ahmadinejad, an ultra-conservative who came to power in a shock victory last June, has provoked international condemnation with a string of anti-Israeli remarks and by apparently embracing the cause of Holocaust revisionists, frequently labelled as neo-Nazis in Europe.

His comments include labelling Israel a "tumour" that should be "wiped off the map" or moved as far away as Alaska.

He has also claimed that the Holocaust - the systematic slaughter by the Nazis of mainland Europe's Jews as well as other groups during World War II - was a Western invention used to justify the creation of the Jewish state.

Iranian investigation

Iran's foreign minister has already said he was willing to send a team of "independent investigators" to visit former Nazi deaths camps across Europe.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said these teams would have to comprise of people "who are not sympathetic to those who committed the crimes and who are not sympathetic to the Zionist regime (Israel)."

Iran has presented the planned conference as an exercise in free speech, where Asefi said Blair "can say the kind of things he cannot say in London".

"For half a century, the defenders of the Holocaust have used every tribune to defend their position, and now (they) have to listen to others," Asefi also said last week.

Ahmadinejad's comments have already been condemned by the UN Security Council and resulted in the cancellation of a planned visit to Tehran in November by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

On Thursday, German authorities also stripped right-wing extremist Horst Mahler of his passport for six months to keep him from travelling to Tehran for the event, arguing he could harm Germany's image.

German officials said Mahler was a "fanatical anti-Semite" who attempted to distort history.

"I don't think that such a person was invited," Asefi said. "But I do wonder how come the Europeans are so nervous. I don't understand the roots of their anxiety."