Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi isn’t certain whether the Holocaust occurred.
The Iranian leader doubted the validity of the Holocaust during an interview on 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, in which he also provided an update on negotiations between the United States and Iran regarding a potential reentry into the Iran nuclear agreement.
“Historical events should be investigated by researchers and historians. There are some signs that it happened. If so, they should allow it to be investigated and researched,” the hard-line conservative Iranian leader said, adding that there “are some signs that it happened.”
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Raisi also criticized Israel, and Arab countries that have recognized the country, during the interview. When asked whether he supports Israel’s right to exist, he explained, “You see, the people of Palestine are the reality. This is the right of the people of Palestine who were forced to leave their houses and motherland. The Americans are supporting this false regime there to take root and to be established there.”
The Arab countries that have agreed to normalize ties with Israel are “an accomplice to [Jerusalem’s] crimes,” adding, “and they are stabbing the very idea of Palestine in the back.”
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Raisi’s comments are “outrageous and should be universally condemned,” while Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. antisemitism monitor, called his remarks “a form of Holocaust denial and a form of antisemitism.”
Also during the interview, Raisi said the Iranians wanted assurances that the U.S. wouldn’t pull out of another nuclear agreement should the countries come to terms, which appears unlikely, at least in the immediate future.
“If it’s a good deal and fair deal, we would be serious about reaching an agreement. It needs to be lasting,” he explained. “We cannot trust the Americans because of the behavior that we’ve already seen from them. That is why if there is no guarantee, there is no trust.”
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The two sides had made progress on a deal, National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby acknowledged last month, after Iran abandoned several sticking points, though Iran’s response to a final proposal from the European Union, which is coordinating talks to reconstitute the deal, was far from promising, according to U.S. officials.
State Department Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman said last week, “Well, we’re at a stalemate in the sense that Iran in the latest round of negotiations has given us a pretty tough response. One that’s unacceptable to us. We’ve sent back a message about what we believe is necessary and what are critical elements here.” Days earlier, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that a deal in the near future is “unlikely.”
