TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the Holocaust was a myth, triggering a fresh wave of international condemnation.
Last week Ahmadinejad first aired his doubts on the veracity of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed by the Nazis. His comments drew a rebuke from the U.N. Security Council.
"They have fabricated a legend under the name 'Massacre of the Jews', and they hold it higher than God himself, religion itself and the prophets themselves," he told a crowd in the southeastern city of Zahedan on Wednesday.
The speech was broadcast live on state television.
European countries called the remarks unacceptable and said they could undermine plans for talks with Tehran on its controversial nuclear program.
Israel said the comments showed Iran's "rogue regime" was acting outside acceptable international norms.
Ahmadinejad, a former Revolutionary Guardsman who was elected president in June, in October called Israel a "tumor" which must be "wiped off the map", provoking a diplomatic storm and stoking up fears about Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Washington accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is only for generating electricity.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the Holocaust remarks could weigh on European Union efforts to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.
"The recent remarks by the Iranian president ... are certainly shocking and unacceptable," he told reporters. "I cannot deny that they may weigh on our bilateral relations and naturally also on the chances for the negotiations on (Iran's) so-called nuclear dossier."
"They have fabricated a legend under the name 'Massacre of the Jews', and they hold it higher than God himself, religion itself and the prophets themselves," he told a crowd in the southeastern city of Zahedan on Wednesday.
The speech was broadcast live on state television.
European countries called the remarks unacceptable and said they could undermine plans for talks with Tehran on its controversial nuclear program.
Israel said the comments showed Iran's "rogue regime" was acting outside acceptable international norms.
Ahmadinejad, a former Revolutionary Guardsman who was elected president in June, in October called Israel a "tumor" which must be "wiped off the map", provoking a diplomatic storm and stoking up fears about Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Washington accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is only for generating electricity.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the Holocaust remarks could weigh on European Union efforts to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.
"The recent remarks by the Iranian president ... are certainly shocking and unacceptable," he told reporters. "I cannot deny that they may weigh on our bilateral relations and naturally also on the chances for the negotiations on (Iran's) so-called nuclear dossier."
