Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has triggered sharp criticism in Israel with statements about the Holocaust.
In an interview with the US television network CBS published on Monday, when asked whether he believed in the authenticity of the Holocaust, Raisi said: "An event has been claimed in history and there are also signs that it happened." Scientists must be allowed to explore these issues," Raisi said, according to a transcript released by Iran's presidential office.
"Regardless of what historians say on the subject, history cannot be denied on this matter," Raisi said.
In Israel, the statements triggered sharp criticism.
"Some signs," Prime Minister Jair Lapid wrote on Twitter, adding historical footage of Holocaust victims.
Israeli Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, who visited the Auschwitz death camp on Monday, said: "You don't have to be a historian or scientist to understand the horrors of the Holocaust.
You have to be human.”
Criticism also came promptly from the USA.
"This statement by the Iranian President is outrageous and should be universally condemned," US President Joe Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan wrote on Twitter.
US Anti-Semitism Commissioner and Holocaust researcher Deborah Lipstadt called Raisi's testimony "a form of Holocaust denial and a form of anti-Semitism."
Iranian politicians have already provoked sharp reactions in the past with their statements on the Holocaust.
Ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in particular had repeatedly expressed doubts about the Holocaust.
Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, Israel and Iran have viewed each other as arch-enemies.