Iranian Foreign Minister Faces Chiding at Home Because of What He Said About the Holocaust

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was summoned by the Islamic Republic’s parliament after he made remarks to German television in which he called the Holocaust a “horrifying tragedy,” the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

Reuters reported that Zarif – who is Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator with the U.S. and other Western nations – is to appear in a closed session on Tuesday after 54 lawmakers signed a petition calling for him to come before them.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks at a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014. (AP/Vahid Salemi)

The petition followed expressions of disapproval from the Iranian public to Zarif's interview.

It's the second time in recent months that a prominent Iranian politician has made remarks acknowledging the brutality of the Holocaust, a stark contrast to the repeated denials from former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who repeatedly called it a myth.

In an apparent effort to convey a more moderate image than his predecessor, President Hassan Rouhani said in September he did not deny the Holocaust and condemned it as a crime against humanity.

“I have said before that I am not a historian, and that when it comes to speaking of the dimensions of the Holocaust it is the historians that should reflect on it,” Rouhani told CNN. “But in general I can tell you that any crime that happens in history against humanity, including the crime the Nazis committed towards the Jews, as well as non-Jewish people, was reprehensible and condemnable as far as we are concerned."