Rouhani acknowledges 'reprehensible' Holocaust crime

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has publicly recognized the Holocaust, describing it as "reprehensible" in translated comments later disputed by Tehran’s semiofficial FARS news agency.

Breaking from years of denial by his hardline predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, over the Nazi massacre of 6 million Jews, Rouhani acknowledged the killings but suggested that it was up to historians to determine the scale of what happened.

"I am not a historian, and when it comes to speaking of the dimensions of the Holocaust it is the historians that should reflect," Rouhani told CNN in an interview Tuesday when asked whether or not he believed, as did his predecessor, that the Holocaust was a myth.

"But, in general, I can tell you that any crime that happens in history against humanity, including the crime the Nazis created towards the Jews, is reprehensible and condemnable," he said, according to CNN's translation of his comments during a visit to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly.

Israeli officials had sharply criticized Rouhani, a moderate cleric who has made diplomatic overtures to the West, for failing to renounce Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust. Rouhani dodged the same question in an interview last week with NBC.

"Whatever criminality they committed against the Jews we condemn," Rouhani told CNN. "The taking of human life is contemptible. It makes no difference if that life is Jewish life, Christian or Muslim. For us it is the same."

But Rouhani went on to take a swipe at Israel.

"This does not mean that on the other hand, you can say, 'Nazis committed crimes against a group, now therefore they must usurp the land of another group and occupy it,'" he said. "This, too, is an act that should be condemned. There should be an evenhanded discussion."

Iran’s FARS did not comment on the Israeli statement but suggested that part of CNN’s translation related to the foundation of Israel was a fabrication.

According to CNN, the translator of the interview conducted with Rouhani by correspondent Christiane Amanpour was hired by the Iranians, and the network dubbed it under a male voice. 

Amanpour's website says it has posted the full interview. 

Prior to the CNN interview, Iranian senior politicians had already distanced themselves from Ahmadinejad’s stance. In a series of tweets to mark the holiday of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, Terhan’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, offered well-wishes to the Jewish community.

When challenged on the issue of the Holocaust, he posted: “Iran never denied it. The man who was perceived to be denying it is now gone.”

Al Jazeera and Reuters