To Isolate Iran, America Introduces Resolution Against Holocaust Denial

UNITED NATIONS — A new U.N. General Assembly resolution to condemn Holocaust denial, largely seen as aimed at increasing Iran's diplomatic isolation, will not face opposition from a U.N. voting bloc that contains most of the Muslim member states, diplomats said yesterday.

America introduced the resolution proposal yesterday afternoon, and it has already received the support of 72 countries that agreed to co-sponsor it. American diplomats said they hoped to adopt it before Saturday, the 62nd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a date the United Nations has marked since 2005 to commemorate victims of the Holocaust.

Diplomats from nations in the Group of 77 voting bloc, which represents the world's poorer countries, said yesterday that while many diplomats are aware the resolution is aimed at isolating Iran, Tehran's envoys have made little effort so far to lobby against it. While Iran may make a late attempt to scuttle the American-led resolution, such an effort is not expected to gain much traction.

"I don't think many will support the opposition to this resolution," the Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram, who heads the Group of 77, told The New York Sun.

The Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, who is among the resolution's co-sponsors, noted yesterday that the document does not mention Iran by name.

According to the proposed resolution, the assembly would condemn "without any reservation any denial of the Holocaust" and would urge its 192 member states "unreservedly to reject any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part."

In December, the Iranian Foreign Ministry sponsored an "international conference to review the global vision of the Holocaust" in Tehran. The event attracted the world's most famous deniers of the Nazis' World War II plan to exterminate the Jews, and many of the conference's participants questioned the extent of the execution of that plan.

In a letter to the president of the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council two weeks ago, the Iranian ambassador to the council, Alireza Moayeri, said the conference was just an academic event "aiming at spotlighting undiscovered and ill-examined layers of contemporary history."

Mr. Moayeri added that there are "serious opposing ideas" that question whether 6 million Jews died in World War II, and he argued that the "Zionist regime" is highlighting the Holocaust conference in Tehran to divert attention from its own "crimes."

In November 2005, the General Assembly passed its first resolution rejecting Holocaust denial. "Despite that resolution, there are worrying signs in recent months that Holocaust denial is gaining traction, and it is important for the international community to make a statement at this time," an Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Daniel Carmon, said.

When asked about the Iranian conference recently, Secretary-General Ban said denying the Holocaust is "not acceptable."

American diplomats are seeking to get the new resolution adopted by Friday, either by a majority vote or — like the previous resolution on this issue — by a consensus acclamation. In 2005, most Muslim diplomats were absent when the Holocaust resolution was adopted, though representatives were in attendance from Egypt and Jordan, two prominent Arab states that have signed peace agreements with Israel.