UPDATE: Fars News Agency has released the text, posted above.
Ahmadinejad’s letter to Merkel from last month has not yet been released in its entirety by Germany or Iran, though the New York Daily News recently reported that Reuters has obtained a copy. It would be nice to see it. Meanwhile, details continue to emerge. An update on this story from AFP:
TEHRAN (AFP) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the Holocaust may have been invented by the victorious Allied powers in World War II to embarrass Germany, the semi-official news agency Mehr has reported.
The remarks by the outspoken Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly questioned the veracity of the Holocaust, came in a letter sent to Merkel in July whose contents have not been disclosed until now.
“Is it not a reasonable possibility that some countries that had won the war made up this excuse to constantly embarrass the defeated people … to bar their progress,” Ahmadinejad said in the letter on Monday.
“The question is if these countries, especially Britain, felt responsible for the Holocaust survivors, why they did not settle them in their own countries?” it said.
It is not the first time Ahmadinejad has voiced doubt about the mass slaughter of six million Jews under Nazi Germany, previously describing the Holocaust as a “myth” used to justify the creation of Israel.
“By promoting the necessity of settlement of Holocaust survivors in the occupied Palestine, they have created a constant threat in the Middle East,” he said, referring to Israel.
Merkel on July 21 indicated that she would not formally respond to the letter, saying it contained “totally unacceptable” criticism of Israel and “constantly put in question” the Jewish state’s right to exist.
[…]
Ahmadinejad in his letter also praised the German people as a nation with potential in science, art, philosophy and politics, but “who are not allowed to play their constructive role in the world.”
“Undoubtedly, we, our two governments and nations, can make big steps to resolve the existing global problems… together we can convince some powers that respecting nations’ rights is in best interest of everybody,” Ahmadinejad said.