Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Israel of using the Holocaust as justification for "an apartheid policy in Palestine" in an interview with CBS News' "Face the Nation" that aired Sunday.
Questioned about Iran's Holocaust denial, Zarif said that "of course" the Holocaust happened.
"Iran has stated very clearly, we reject the killing of innocent people no matter what the numbers, no matter by who," he said.
But the Holocaust "does not justify depriving others of their homeland. It does not justify building settlements in the territory of other people. It does not justify violating en mass the rights of Palestinians. The Holocaust cannot be used as a justification for an apartheid policy in Palestine," Zarif said.
The Islamic republic holds an annual exhibition on Holocaust denial. Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad frequently denied the Holocaust and incumbent President Hassan Rouhani has said the question of whether the Holocaust happened and the extent of the slaughter was "a matter for historians and researchers to illuminate."
In the interview, Zarif was asked to clarify Rouhani's remarks alleging U.S. President Donald Trump had Nazi tendencies. "He didn't call him such. He said these are behavior exhibiting the same type of approach," Zarif responded.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted Rouhani over his comments at the time.
"For a Holocaust-denying country that is threatening Israel to compare the United States or its leader to Nazis is among the most outrageous things I have ever heard," Pompeo had said.
