UN Assembly condemns Holocaust denials

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 26 (Reuters) The UN General Assembly today adopted a resolution on Friday condemning denials of the Holocaust, weeks after Iran sponsored a meeting dominated by speakers questioning the extermination of 6 million Jews in World War Two.

The resolution, co-sponsored by 103 countries, was approved by consensus, without a vote. But Iran disassociated itself from the action, calling the US-drafted resolution a political exercise.

The operative part of the resolution has only two paragraphs. It ''condemns without any reservation any denial of the Holocaust'' and ''urges all member states unreservedly to reject any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part, or any activities to this end.'' The United States and its allies, including every European nation, received almost as many co-sponsors for the resolution as a broader November 2005 assembly measure making January. 27 the International Day of Commemoration for victims of the Holocaust.

Iran is not mentioned by name although the resolution is clearly aimed at a Tehran conference convened in December by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Most speakers expressed doubt about the Nazis' mass extermination of Jews.

Ahmadinejad came to power in August 2005 and caused an international outcry by terming the Holocaust a ''myth'' and calling Israel a ''tumor'' in the Middle East.

Iranian envoy Hossein Gharibi; told the assembly, ''In our view there is no justification for genocide of any kind, nor can there be any justification for the attempt made by some -- particularly by the Israeli regime -- to exploit the past crimes as a pretext to commit new genocide and crimes.'' In response, Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman said, ''While the nations of the world gather here to affirm the historicity of the Holocaust with the intent of never again allowing genocide, a member of this assembly is acquiring the capabilities to carry out its own.'' ''The president of Iran is in fact saying, 'There really was no Holocaust, but just in case, we shall finish the job.''' Up to 1.5 million prisoners, most of them Jews, were killed in Auschwitz alone. A total of six million Jews and millions of others including Poles, homosexuals, Russians and Gypsies were murdered by the Nazis and their allies during the war.

General Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed al-Khalifa of Bahrain, told the 192 members that the resolution showed ''we must strengthen our resolve to prevent such atrocities, whenever and wherever they might occur.'' REUTERS SI RK2150