Leader of Iran Saw an Ally in Germany

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that their countries had been subjected to tyranny from World War II victors and that they should cooperate to end the imposed world order.

Ahmadinejad made the remarks in a letter to Merkel in July. A copy of it, the details of which were not made public at the time, was obtained from a diplomat who asked not to be identified.

In the letter, the Iranian president did not repeat his previous claim that the Holocaust, in which the Nazis killed 6 million Jews, was a myth. But he railed against Zionism.

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 II intended to create an alibi on the basis of which they could continue keeping the defeated nations of World War II indebted to them,” the English version of the letter says.

“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,” Ahmadinejad 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 II on the defeated nations,” he wrote.

The letter does 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 Israel is widely believed to have.

Germany and five other powers have offered Iran incentives to stop enriching uranium to end the atomic standoff.

Merkel said Thursday that Iran’s reply to the offer was unsatisfactory.