Iran to host Holocaust conference?

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Iran on Monday opened a two-day conference exploring the validity of the Nazi Holocaust, a move that has sparked outrage among Jewish groups. One such group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, planned to counter the event with a teleconference showcasing stories from Holocaust survivors. Manouchehr Mohammadi, Iran's deputy foreign minister for research, told Iran's state-run news agency, IRNA, that Tehran's leaders would accept that the Holocaust occurred if scholars attending the conference could prove that the Nazi regime exterminated 6 million Jews during World War II. But Mohammadi said Iran does not deny the murders and damages caused by Hitler's genocide, nor that 50 million people were the victims of his racism, according to IRNA. He said the conference is to be held in response to international outrage at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated assertion that the Holocaust is a myth. "If the Holocaust is a historical event, then is it not warranted to be looked into and researched?" Mohammadi asked rhetorically. Because of the negative reactions to the nature of the conference, Iran has not announced the names of the participants, but said it would include Jewish scholars and rabbis, IRNA reported. No one from Israel will attend the conference