Iran Prompts Anger as Holocaust Conference Gets Green Light

A proposed conference that stirred ire in Germany earlier this year is now slated to take place next week. Iran is behind the meeting, which is expected to be a platform for Holocaust deniers.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed the Holocaust as a myth.

And last January, the Iranian government announced it would hold a conference on the Holocaust. It said it intended to invite academics such as German neo-Nazi Horst Mahler and the Israeli journalist and Christian convert Israel Shamir, both of whom are Holocaust deniers.

Back in January, Western politicians, especially in Germany, were up in arms at the plan -- although it was debated at the time whether the conference would actually take place, and what it was intended to provoke. Now, however, it seems clear that it will take place after all.

Iran's Foreign Ministry has invited scholars from 30 countries to discuss questions such as the scale of the Holocaust, and whether or not the Nazis really used gas chambers to kill Jews.

Deputy Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mohammadi said 67 researchers from countries including Britain, Germany and France would take part in the two-day meeting starting on Monday, according to Wednesday's Jomhuri-ye Eslami newspaper.

Not in attendance will be British historian David Irving. He was on the original invite list, but is currently serving a three year jail term in Austria for Holocaust denial.