Memo to Iran’s apologists: President Ahmadinejad has denied the Holocaust

Has President Ahmadinejad ever denied the Holocaust? David Morrison, co-author with Peter Oborne of a new apologia on the Iranian ‘government’, appears to think that he has not. In a bizarre and disgraceful interview with the Telegraph, alongside his co-author, Morrison recites the main claim of their book – which is that the Iranian regime is not pursuing nuclear weapons. Oborne’s Telegraph colleague Con Coughlin too kindly skewers that claim as ‘delusional’.

But even more alarming than that conspiracy theory of theirs is Morrison’s claim (uncorrected by Oborne, the Telegraph’s chief political commentator) that he has ‘never come across a statement from President Ahmadinejad saying that the Holocaust didn’t happen’. Here is a transcript of the relevant excerpt (from about 17 minutes in).  The Telegraph’s interviewer asks how anybody could trust a regime which:

‘Q: …for example held a conference to discuss the historical veracity of the Holocaust.

David Morrison: I’m not sure whether the conference actually said that.’

Really? Well, for the record, it did. There was not one historian present. The 2006 conference attendees included David Duke, Robert Faurisson and Frederick Toben.  Each and every speech was dedicated to claiming that the Holocaust had not occurred and/or that Israel should not exist.

Going on, the interviewer tries to correct Morrison’s claim by saying:

‘Q: Holocaust deniers were present.

David Morrison: You may be right indeed.’

No, not ‘may be right’. ‘Right’. What else are Faurisson et al? Historians? Why the ‘may be’?

Worse is to come. For Morrison goes on:

‘David Morrison: I have never come across a statement from Ahmadinejad saying that the Holocaust didn’t happen. He’s said other things that question the Holocaust and the numbers killed in the Holocaust, yes, but I’ve never come across an absolute denial of it.’

This is quite simply unbelievable.