January 3, 2006	Tuesday	Zilhaj 2, 1426

TEHRAN, Jan 2: Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who recently called the Holocaust a “myth”, has likened Zionism to fascism and said Israel was created in order to expel Jews from Europe.

In written answers to questions from the public reproduced in several newspapers on Monday, the Iranian President said the creation of Israel after World War Two had killed two birds with one stone for Europe.

The objectives achieved by Europe were: “Sweeping the Jews out of Europe and at the same time creating a European appendix with a Zionist and anti-Islamic nature in the heart of the Islamic world,” he said.

“Zionism is a Western ideology and a colonialist idea ... and right now it massacres Muslims with direct guidance and help from the United States and a part of Europe ... Zionism is basically a new (form of) fascism,” he added.

The former Revolutionary Guardsman again questioned why research and debate over how many Jews died in the Holocaust was taboo and asked, if it was true that millions of Jews were killed by Germany: “Why shouldn’t Europe pay the price as the main culprit of the crime?”

Ahmadinejad has previously suggested that Israel should be moved to Europe or North America.

URANIUM ENRICHMENT: Iran said on Monday it would only consider Moscow’s offer if it acknowledged the Islamic republic’s right to enrich uranium on Iranian soil.

“As we said before we want to have enrichment inside Iran... and any proposal which is based on this principle will be studied,” government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.

“We are studying the Russian proposal based on this framework,” he said. “The government will never give up its principles.”

Moscow has suggested allowing Iran to conduct uranium enrichment in Russia, giving the country access to the nuclear fuel cycle while guaranteeing its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.

The Russian proposal seeks to overcome the key sticking point in talks between Iran and the European Union over the programme, which the United States alleges is a cover for nuclear weapons development.

Elham’s comments came after top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani criticised the Russian proposal for having “serious problems.”

“It is an idea, not a structured proposal, we don’t see it as mature and it has serious problems,” Larijani, the secretary of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, said on state television.

Iran has denied it is seeking to build a nuclear bomb and says it is seeking only to produce electricity.

Under the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT), every country is allowed to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Iran is a signatory to the NPT.

“The (Russian) plan could be complementary and supporting, there are technological benefits, we have to examine them. It is not rigid and there is room for manoeuvre,” he said.

Last week, another top national security official had appeared warm to the Russian proposal when he vowed that his country would study it carefully.

Supreme National Security Council member Javad Vaidi also told the ISNA agency on Dec 28 that the Russian proposal was based on the establishment of a “joint Iran-Russia company on Russian soil” for the enrichment of uranium.

However, he gave no indication of whether Iran was ready to drop its long-standing demand to enrich uranium on its own territory.

Russia enjoys close ties with Iran and is helping build the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran.—Reuters/AFP