Agence France Presse – The Austrian presidency of the EU firmly condemned the repeated claim by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Holocaust is a "myth", in a news release Saturday.
Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik described the hardline conservative leader’s comments as "totally unacceptable" and "distressing".
"That such totally unacceptable statements are regularly repeated does not authorise us to accept them in silence," she said.
Ahmadinejad’s statement appeared "in complete contradiction of the efforts deployed … by numerous political and religious leaders for a respectful dialogue between cultures," she added, referring to diplomatic measures prompted by reactions to European cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Ahmadinejad said earlier Saturday that the Jewish Holocaust was a "myth" and Palestinians and Iraqis were suffering a "real Holocaust".
Plassnik added that the "only answer" for the future of the Middle East was "peaceful cohabitation of Israelis and Palestinians, without violence or terrorism, based on two states as planned in the Road Map" for peace drawn up by the US.