MOSCOW, December 15 (RIA Novosti) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's anti-Jewish statements could increase his country's international isolation and impede its economic development, a high-profile Russian lawmaker said Thursday.
Mikhail Margelov, who heads the international relations committee in Russia's upper house of parliament, said Ahmadinejad's public denial of the Holocaust and his calling it "a myth" cast a shadow on the co-sponsors of the Middle East peace process, Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.
"Iran seems to have taken upon itself the mission of stoking up the Middle Eastern conflict, playing into the hands of extremist forces of all sorts, including [those] far beyond Israel and the Palestinian Authority," he said.
On live TV in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan Wednesday, Ahmadinejad described the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews in World War II as a fabrication concocted to justify Israel's existence. He said the Europeans "have created a myth today that they call the massacre of Jews and they consider it a principle above God, religions and the prophets."
This is not the first time Ahmadinejad has caused controversy with his anti-Jewish rhetoric. He recently said Israel must be wiped off the world map and called on Europe or North America to host a Jewish state. This string of xenophobic remarks sparked international outrage and increased the world community's pressure on Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.
However, according to Margelov, Jewish public organizations have not been vocal enough in their condemnation of Iran's ultra nationalist president. Anti-Semitic slurs from the head of a large Islamic state cannot be brushed aside as a case of personal prejudice, the MP said.
Moscow's criticism of Tehran has been relatively mild since Russia and Iran cooperate on a number of economic projects, including the nuclear power plant at Bushehr, a significant source of income for Russian companies.
