IranRouhani says the Holocaust did happen, and that it was reprehensible – or does he?

Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, has adopted a tone in his public announcement which is different from that of his confrontational predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Rouhani exudes reasonableness and conciliation, appearing willing to negotiate and accommodate.

Now, whether Rouhani’s moderate tone is accompanied by more moderate policies remains to be seen. In Israel, for example, they regard him as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Israel is worry that the United States, reluctant to become entangled in yet another Middle East conflict and hesitant about using American military force in the region, would be receptive to Rouhani’s charm offensive, leading to a more relaxed U.S. attitude toward the Iranian nuclear program.

One issue which symbolized the Iranian regime’s recalcitrance and intransigence, especially under Ahmadinejad, was the Holocaust. Ahmadinejad denied the Holocaust even occurred, and during his eight years in office, convened an annual conference of Holocaust deniers in Tehran in which a sundry crackpots presented what they described as studies proving that the Holocaust was a Jewish myth.

Rouhani appears willing to change direction in this issue as well.

Yesterday, in interview with CNN, he was asked whether he shared his predecessor’s belief that the Holocaust was a myth. Rouhani replied that he would leave it to historians to judge the “dimensions of the Holocaust.”

He added: “In general, I can tell you that any crime or — that happens in history against humanity, including the crime that the Nazis committed towards the Jews, as well as non-Jewish people — is reprehensible and condemnable, as far as we are concerned” (Rouhani spoke in Farsi, and a CNN translator translated).

Rouhani added that he would leave it to historians to judge the “dimensions of the Holocaust.”

Old habits die hard, though. The New York Times reports that the Iranian news agency Fars, which has ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was quick to post its own translation of Rouhani’s answer to CNN’s question, and claimed that he did not use the word “reprehensible” and that he said historians should be left to judge “historical events,” not “the Holocaust.”

The Times notes that the translation by Fars make Rouhani’s words appear closer to those used by Ahmadinejad. For example, in an interview with CNN in 2012, he said: “Whatever event has taken place throughout history, or hasn’t taken place, I cannot judge that. Why should I judge that?”

Jewish leaders in the United States, and Israeli spokesmen, were not exactly impressed by Rounai’s new approach to the Holocaust – if it is a new approach relative to his predecessor.

“Assuming the accuracy of the [CNN] translation, for me his comments are duly noted,” David Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee, told the Times. “But he’s only acknowledging, and rather belatedly, the universally acknowledged truth of the last seventy years. That does not warrant a standing ovation.”

Israeli officials reject Rouhani’s claim that the factual details of the Holocaust are a matter best left to historians. Some analysts say, in fact, that even raising doubts about the scope of the genocide is itself a form of Holocaust revisionism.

A statement issued by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted, “It does not take a historian to recognize the existence of the Holocaust — it just requires being a human being.”