German envoy to Iran praises Holocaust denier
NEW YORK – Berlin’s ambassador to Tehran Michael Klor-Berchtold praised last week Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s quasi-parliament and a well-known denier of the Holocaust.
Writing on his German-ambassador-to-Tehran Twitter feed, Klor-Berchtold said in English and Persian: “good discussion with the Speaker of Iranian Parliament, Mr. Ali Larijani.”
The Jerusalem Post previously reported that, according to critics, Larijani engaged in a form of Holocaust denial at the 2007 Munich Security Conference when he said his country has “different perspectives on the Holocaust.” The news outlet Spiegel online stated in its headline from 2007: “Larijani denies the Holocaust in Munich.” Larijani was defending former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial at time.
German politicians and the head of the Munich security conference Wolfgang Ischinger declined to file criminal charges against Larijani at the time for a violation of Germany’s anti-Holocaust denial law. It is unclear why German officials decided not to pursue a criminal complaint.
Klor-Berchtold also met on Tuesday with Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, an assistant to Larijani and the director general of international affairs for Iran’s parliament. Amir-Abdollahian advocated in February the obliteration of the Jewish state. The Iran regime-controlled outlet Iran Front Page wrote on February 27 that Amir-Abdollahian, who is also the secretary-general of the “International Conference on Supporting Palestinian Intifada,” said at a press conference that the “Hourglass Festival” is a symbol of the imminent collapse of the Zionist regime of Israel, as predicted by the Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.”
He added that: “The Islamic Republic won’t allow the Zionists to play with the security of the sensitive region of the Middle East. Iran and its allies in the region, who defeated terrorists, will never allow the Zionists to endanger the region’s security.”
On February 12, the ambassador tweeted: “German President Steinmeier sends letter of congratulations to Rohani on Iranian National Day,” a day celebrating the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
The mass-circulation tabloid Bild declared Germany’s controversial ambassador Klor-Berchtold the “loser of the day” for his meeting with Larijani and Amir-Abdollahian. Bild wrote “No dialogue with Jew-haters.”
In 2010, Germany’s then-ambassador to Iran Bernd Erbel said he wants to promote the “historical treasure of the German-Iranian friendship.”
Germany’s outgoing Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel is widely considered to be pro-Iran. He took large business delegations to Tehran in 2015 and 2016 to revive trade deals with the clerical regime. German exports to the Islamic Republic of Iran climbed to €3.5 billion in 2017 from €2.6b. in 2016.