Ahmadinejad says "Zionists" against Germany trip

BERLIN, May 28 (Reuters) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said an ''active worldwide network of Zionists'' was trying to prevent his possible trip to Germany for the World Cup and expressed new doubts over whether the Holocaust happened.

In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine, Ahmadinejad also said he doubted Germans were allowed to write ''the truth'' about the Holocaust and said if Nazi murder of European Jews really happened, Jews should be moved from Israel back to Europe.

''We say if the Holocaust happened, then the Europeans must accept the consequences and the price should not be paid by Palestine,'' he said in a rare interview with Western media that was published on Sunday. ''If it did not happen, then the Jews must return to where they came from.

''I believe the German people are prisoners of the Holocaust.

More than 60 million were killed in World War Two ... The question is: Why is it that only Jews are at the centre of attention?'' Ahmadinejad has faced criticism in Europe in the past for inflammatory remarks about Israel and statements questioning whether the Holocaust happened. Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis and their allies in concentration camps.

''How long is this going to go on?'' he added. ''How long will the German people be held hostage to the Zionists?...Why should you feel obligated to the Zionists? You've paid reparations for 60 years and will have to pay for another 100 years.'' German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders have criticised his previous remarks about the Holocaust as unacceptable. Denying the Holocaust is a serious crime in Germany punishable with a prison term of up to five years.

WORLD CUP The Iranian president left open whether he would visit Germany to support the Iran national soccer team during the World Cup that begins on June 9. Iran play Mexico in their first World Cup match on June 11 in Nuremberg.

''My decision depends on a lot of different things,'' said Ahmadinejad, a noted soccer fan. ''Whether I have time, whether I want to and some other things.'' Ahmadinejad said he could not understand why there had been such a major political debate about his possible visit to Germany after Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble announced he would be welcome.

But he said he was not surprised by the row.

''I was not at all surprised because there is a very active worldwide network of Zionists, also in Europe,'' he said.

Asked by Der Spiegel, in its cover story on Sunday entitled ''The man the world is afraid of'', whether he stood by his earlier view the Holocaust was a myth, Ahmadinejad said: ''I only accept something as the truth if I am truly convinced of it.

''In Europe there are two opinions on it. One group of researchers who are by and large politically motivated say the Holocaust happened. There is another group of researchers who have the opposite view and are by and large in prison for that.'' Ahmadinejad said he was aware of the uproar that his anti-Israel remarks in the past had caused and added the fact he has been compared to Nazi ruler Adolf Hitler showed his ideas had touched a sensitive chord in Europe.

''The fact alone that my comments led to such hefty protests, even though I'm not a European, and the fact that I've been compared to certain persons in German history, indicates how explosive the atmosphere is for researchers in your country.'' REUTERS SY PM1705