“Contrary to what some say in the West, there are no differences between Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,” said Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the National Council of Resistance of Iran’ s foreign affairs committee. “All of Ahmadinejad’s positions, including his stance on Israel, had the full backing of Khamenei.”
Speaking at a Paris news conference, Mohaddessin read from what he said was an internal Iranian government document which said Ahmadinejad showed his anti-Israeli speeches to Khamenei, who approved them after making some unspecified changes.
Ahmadinejad on Dec. 14 called the Nazi Holocaust a “myth” and said Europe, the U.S. and Canada should use their own land for a Jewish state. In October, he said Israel “must be wiped off the map,” leading United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to cancel a trip to Iran. On Dec. 8, he prompted another outcry when he said Germany and Austria should host Israel on their soil.
Some 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis until Germany’s defeat in the 1939-1945 World War II.
In Athens today, Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pur-Mohammadi said the Iranian president’s remarks had been misunderstood abroad, the Associated Press reported.
“He wanted to say that if certain people have created troubles for the Jewish community they should bear the expenses, and it is not others who should pay for that,” AP cited the Iranian minister as saying in remarks on the sidelines of a conference on immigration.
Hardliners’ Control
Mohaddessin, of the National Resistance, said Iran is ratcheting up its anti-Israeli rhetoric because Ahmadinejad’s election in June gave religious hardliners control over the entire government.
Under the previous government of President Mohammad Khatami, politicians who sought better ties with the West occupied several key cabinet positions, such as foreign minister. In addition, the U.S. is bogged down in Iraq and European Union negotiators have failed to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons, he said.
“Khamenei has favored this policy from the start, but only now has the means to focus on it,” he said.
Mohaddessin also said Iran controls the Iraqi Interior Ministry, and that Iranians ran the two Baghdad detention centers where U.S. troops found mistreated prisoners. He said Iran pays the salaries of thousands of politicians in Iraq.
The National Council of the Resistance was founded in July 1981 to oppose the Islamic Republic in Iran. It includes groups such as the People’s Mujahedeen, the Organization of Iranian People’s Fadaian Guerrillas and the Committed Professors of Iran’s Universities and Schools of Higher Education. Its headquarters are at Auvers-sur-Oise, north of Paris.
The group holds periodic press conferences in Paris and other European capitals, mostly to present evidence it says it has of Iran’s efforts to build a nuclear weapon.