WORLD BRIEFING / IRAN
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Iran’s president said he is proud to stoke international outrage with his latest remarks questioning the Holocaust as he heads to the United Nations this week.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks Wednesday to the U.N. General Assembly. He appears intent on showing he has not been weakened by three months of turmoil at home, where his opponents have staged dramatic protests claiming Ahmadinejad’s victory in the June presidential election was fraudulent.
In a speech Friday, he questioned whether the Holocaust was “a real event” and called it a pretext used by Jews to trick the West into backing the creation of Israel. He said the Jewish state was created out of “a lie and a mythical claim.”
Asked about widespread condemnation of such remarks, Ahmadinejad said Monday, “The anger of the world’s professional killers is [a source of] pride for us,” according to state news agency IRNA.
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