Associated Press, STRASBOURG, France _ Iran does not have the leadership it deserves, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Wednesday, hours after Iran’s president called the Holocaust a "myth" engineered by Europe to create a land for the Jews.
"This shows the nature of the regime. With the great respect I have for that country, that people, the great history of that country, I say they do not have the president, or the regime, they deserve," Barroso, in unusually strong comments, told reporters.
"Those statements are completely unacceptable, and it is really shocking that a head of state that has a seat in the United Nations can say such a thing," Barroso added on the sidelines of a European Parliament meeting. "It calls our attention to the real danger of that regime having an atomic bomb."
Ahmadinejad told a crowd of thousands in southeastern Iran that the Holocaust _ in which more than 6 million Jews died during World War II _ was a "myth" perpetrated by Europeans.
"Today, they have created a myth in the name of Holocaust and consider it to be above God, religion and the prophets," Ahmadinejad said.
The comments drew immediate condemnation from Israel, Germany and EU officials.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Berlin that his government had already summoned the charge d’affaires at the Iranian Embassy and made its displeasure "unmistakably clear."
"The new remarks by the Iranian president, in which not only Israel’s right to exist is denied but also … the Holocaust are indeed shocking and unacceptable," Steinmeier said.
EU leaders and foreign ministers were expected to formally denounce the statements at a two-day EU summit that begins Thursday. Jonathan Allen, a spokesman for Britain, which holds the current EU presidency, said EU foreign ministers may discuss the Iranian leader’s comments over dinner Thursday.
"We are outraged. We condemn it, we think its absolutely unacceptable," EU spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said.
The comments are the latest to reveal Ahmadinejad’s anti-Israeli views. In late October, the Iranian leader called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
Such "completely unacceptable" comments do nothing to restore confidence in Iran, European Commission spokeswoman Emma Udwin said. "We feel very strongly that Iran is damaging its own interests with these kind of remarks."
EU diplomats said the comments complicate European efforts to persuade Tehran to freeze the parts of its nuclear program that can be used to make weapons. Envoys from Germany, France and Britain are to resume negotiations with Iran later this month.
Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the German who leads the Green faction in the European Parliament, raised the possibility of excluding the Iranian national soccer team from next year’s World Cup finals because of Ahmadinejad’s statement.
