Supreme leader of Iran marks Holocaust Memorial Day by publishing Holocaust denying video

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, has marked Holocaust Memorial Day by publishing a Holocaust denying video on his official website.

While nations around the world remembered the millions of people who were killed in Auschwitz and other concentration camps, Iran’s hardline leader questioned whether the Holocaust “is a reality or not”.

Khamenei's website promotes the video with a banner across its homepage, featuring a montage of images, including one of Adolf Hitler.

Wednesday was also the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland where more than one million people were killed during World War Two. The majority were Jews and the former extermination camp is the world's biggest Jewish cemetery.

Between 1941 and 1945, the Nazis attempted to annihilate all of Europe’s Jews. In one of the largest genocides in history, approximately six million Jews were killed by Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime and its collaborators.

Khamenei's message comes as President Hassan Rouhani tours Italy and France, attempting to drum up trade and diplomatic links after his country signed a historic deal to limit its nuclear ambitions.

Khamenei, who has the final word on high matters of state including last summer’s nuclear deal, used his video to call on the “dear people of Iran” to “stand up against the ignorance” of the West.

In the video, titled Are The Dark Ages Over?, Khamenei says: “No one in European countries dares to speak about Holocaust.

“While it is not clear whether the core of this matter is a reality or not. Even if it is a reality, it is not clear how it happened.”

The video, which features images of Holocaust deniers Roger Garaudy, Robert Faurisson, and David Irving, is just under three minutes long.

Khamenei bemoans the fact that “speaking about Holocaust and expressing doubts about it is considered to be a great sin” in the West.

“If someone does this, they stop, arrest, imprison and sue him,” he says.

“This is while they claim to be the supporters of freedom. This is the ignorance that exists in today’s world, we should be awake.”

He brands the “western powers” liars for assisting the “fake Zionist regime” while saying they are opposed to terrorism and Isil.

Alberto Fernandez, vice president of the Middle East Media Research Institute, said: "Coming in the midst of a charm offensive and buying spree, the Khamenei Holocaust denial video underscores the essential nature of the Teheran regime, as it wants to be known: aggressive, arrogant, intolerant, anti-Semitic and anti-American. These are features, not bugs in the Iranian official system.”

President Rouhani is currently in Rome along with a 120-strong delegation of Iranian ministers and business leaders.

On Tuesday he had a 40-minute meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, in which he asked the Argentinean pontiff to pray for him.

The Pope thanked him for visiting the Vatican and added: "I hope for peace."

The pair spoke about the recent nuclear accord, Iran’s role in the Middle East and the prospects for a peace deal in Syria.

Before arriving at the Vatican, President Rouhani told a forum of Italian business leaders that "Iran is the safest and most stable country of the entire region."