Iran letter to Germany says both facing "tyranny"

LONDON, Aug 24 (Reuters) Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that their two countries had been subjected to ''tyranny'' from the World War Two victors and should cooperate to end the ''imposed'' world order.

Ahmadinejad made the remarks in a letter sent to Merkel in July.

A copy of the letter, the details of which were not made public at the time, was obtained by Reuters from a diplomat who asked not to be identified.

In the letter, the Iranian president did not repeat his previous assertion that the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis, was a myth. But he said it had been used to weaken Germany, and he railed against Zionism.

Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected the letter at the time as ''totally unacceptable to Germany'' and said it did not deserve a reply.

''I have no intention of arguing about the Holocaust,'' Ahmadinejad wrote. ''But ... some victorious countries of World War Two intended to create an alibi on the basis of which they could continue keeping the defeated nations of World War Two indebted to them,'' the English version of the letter said.

The letter did not address Iran's nuclear standoff with the West, which accuses Iran of seeking atomic bombs despite Tehran's denials. But Ahmadinejad did complain about the nuclear weapons which Israel is widely believed to have.

''Are the nuclear arsenals of Israel intended to be used in defence of the survivors of the Holocaust or as a permanent threat against nations of the region and as an instrument of coercion, and possibly to defend the interests of certain circles of power in the Western countries?'' he wrote.

Germany and five other powers have offered Iran incentives to stop enriching uranium to end the atomic standoff. Merkel said today Iran's reply to the offer was not satisfactory.

''I believe we and you have both been the subject of tyranny.

They do not respect your rights and want us also to forgo our rights,'' the Iranian president wrote.

''Together we must end the present abnormalities in international relations, the type of order and relations that are based on the impositions of the victors of the World War Two on the defeated nations,'' he wrote.

The Islamic Republic is deeply suspicious of the United States, which had close ties with the shah before he was toppled by the 1979 revolution, and former imperial power Britain.

Germany's ties with Ahmadinejad have been soured by his call for Israel to be ''wiped of the map'', a comment he made in October, and for denying the Holocaust, a crime in Germany.

He did not repeat such comments but said the Middle East had suffered because Holocaust survivors were settled in what was then Palestine. He also complained about what he said was Zionist influence in economic, media and political circles.

Similar to a letter sent to US President George W Bush, Ahmadinejad listed problems in the world and suggested they were due to the failure of leaders to follow divine teachings.

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