EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Thursday condemned Iranian First
Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi for a speech he gave at a UN conference in
Tehran this week in which he said Jews controlled the international drug
trade.
“The high representative is deeply disturbed by racist and
anti-Semitic statements made by Iranian First Vice President Mohammad-Reza
Rahimi at the UN International Day against Drug Abuse,” Ashton said. She added
that such statements are “unacceptable,” and reiterated the “EU’s absolute
commitment to combating racism and anti-Semitism.”
During his speech,
Rahimi blamed Judaism for the spread of illegal drugs around the world and said
the Talmud teaches to “destroy everyone who opposes the Jews.”
He went on
to assert that there are no drug addicts who are Zionists: “The Islamic Republic
of Iran will pay for anybody who can research and find one single Zionist who is
an addict. They do not exist.
This is the proof of their involvement in
drugs trade,” The New York Times quoted Rahimi as saying.
Diplomats
present at the conference criticized the speech, but remained for the rest of
the event.
In Israel, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman swiftly condemned
the comments.
“Hitler also said crazy things and succeeded in carrying
out his plan,” Liberman said, adding that the world has not yet come to
understand the danger Iran poses.
“The fact that UN representatives and
representatives of European nations are still participating in conferences held
in Tehran, in which the worst kind of anti-Semitics remarks are made,
legitimizes the the regime of the ayatollahs,” he said.