Russia slams Netanyahu's Holocaust remarks 'disrespectful' to victims, defends Iran
Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has condemned Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for distorting the history of World War II and the Holocaust, responding directly to Netanyahu's claim that Israel could have faced a catastrophe on the scale of the Holocaust from Iran.
Netanyahu claimed on Tuesday that the US-Israeli terrorist war on Iran had removed the "immediate existential threat" to Israel and that, in his view, Israel could otherwise have faced a catastrophe on the scale of the Holocaust involving the use of nuclear weapons.
In response, Zakharova published a post on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website on Wednesday asking Netanyahu: "Who really committed the Holocaust which resulted in the genocide of countless people? Did Iran carry out the first Holocaust? Let me remind you that in 1943, Iran declared war on Nazi Germany."
She added that it was the Bank of England, and not the Central Bank of Iran, that financially supported Nazi Germany.
"Mentioning Auschwitz, Majdanek and Sobibor [concentration camps] in the context of Iran's so-called threat of a nuclear Holocaust to Israel is a sign of disrespect to all victims of World War II, the victims of the genocide of the Soviet people, the victims of the Holocaust, and the soldiers of the Red Army who liberated the death camps," Zakharova said.
Denouncing US-Israeli strikes on Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in southern Iran, Zakharova emphasized that the purpose of the power plant is non-military as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed numerous times.
She also cited Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's remarks on Tuesday during a meeting with his Libyan counterpart, saying the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which came into effect in 2015, proves that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful.
Zakharova also pointed to Iran's membership in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and Iran following the most difficult rules put forward by the IAEA in order to prove the non-military nature of its nuclear program.
"If the goal of US President Donald Trump from the negotiations is to return to the achievements of the JCPOA or more, then Russia supports these negotiations," she said.
The unprovoked, illegal US-Israeli aggression on Iran began on February 28 with airstrikes that assassinated senior Iranian officials and commanders and targeted civilian infrastructure. Iran's Bushehr power plant in southern Iran, which was constructed with the help of Russia, also came under attack three times at least.
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