In a speech to a pro-Palestinian rally, which also fell on the eve of the Jewish New Year, Mr. Ahmadinejad called confrontation with “the Zionist regime” a “national and religious duty,” news reports said.
Several reports quoted him as saying the Holocaust was false pretext for the establishment of Israel in 1948. “It is a lie” based on an unprovable and “mythical claim,” he was quoted as saying in the speech.
Mr. Ahmadinejad said the Israeli “regime has no future. Its life has come to an end,” Reuters reported.
Mr. Ahmadinejad made similar remarks after his first election as president in 2005. But, coming only days before scheduled talks between his government and western powers, his latest denial of the Holocaust seemed likely to cast a cloud over those discussions.
