White House Condemns Holocaust Conference; Attendees Form Committee

This just in from the Office of the Press Secretary at The White House:

The United States condemns the conference on the Holocaust convoked by the Iranian regime on Monday in Tehran. While people around the world mark International Human Rights Week and renew the solemn pledges of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which was drafted in the wake of the atrocities of World War II, the Iranian regime perversely seeks to call the historical fact of those atrocities into question and provide a platform for hatred. The gathering of Holocaust deniers in Tehran is an affront to the entire civilized world, as well as to the traditional Iranian values of tolerance and mutual respect. The United States will continue to support those in Iran and elsewhere who seek to promote human rights and dignity, and will stand with them in their efforts to overcome oppression, injustice, and tyranny.

Meanwhile, the conference has agreed to form an international committee to study the Holocaust. Robert Faurisson, a French scholar who has described the Holocaust as a "historical lie", said the committee included members from the U.S., France, Canada, Switzerland, Austria, Iran, Bahrain and Syria.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country would never accept such a conference and would "counter it in every way we can", adding: "It shows the danger of the situation Israel is in and in particular the threat that Israel lives under."