In his first interview with a Western journalist, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi made a statement on Sunday, telling 60 Minutes that Israel is a “malignant cancerous disease” and that the Holocaust “probably occurred,” but that it has to “be probed and explored.”
The 60-year-old president Ebrahim Raisi, whose full name is Ebrahim Ra’s al-Sdt, was chosen to serve as the eighth leader of the nation in August 2021.
Before taking office as president, the 60-year-old man, who has descended from the Prophet Muhammad and regards Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as his mentor, served as Iran’s chief justice.
Veteran journalist Lesley Stahl interviewed the Iranian president in the presidential complex in Tehran for the 60 Minutes segment that aired at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Stahl was given a list of conditions she had to satisfy before seeing the Iranian president.
I was instructed on how to dress, when to sit and when to avoid interfering with him. The interview lasted for an hour, Stahl said.
Stahl began the interview by addressing the nuclear agreement discussions, Raisi’s beef with former US President Donald Trump, and his description of the sanctions as a “tyranny against the people of Iran.” Stahl was fully clothed from head to toe and wore the customary head covering.
His mistrust of Americans, as well as his denial of the murder of 5,000 political dissidents (to Stahl’s question, “What sort of proof? He said, “These are charges and assertions made by a terrorist organization.”
Through a translator, Raisi communicated, sometimes seeming irritated.
However, one of the hour-long segment’s most surprising moments came when Stahl questioned Raisi about if he thought “the Holocaust occurred… that 6 million Jews were slaughtered?” and he gave an uninterested reply.
Look, historians and academics should look at historical occurrences, he remarked. There are some indications that it took place. If so, they need to permit an investigation and study. After that, Stahl questioned him on Israel’s legitimacy as a nation and referred to it as a “fake government.”
You know, the truth of Palestine is that its people are being forced to from their homes and nation, and this is their right, he bemoaned.
The Americans are assisting in the establishment and growth of this fake dictatorship in that country.
On June 3, 2018, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted his position against Israel, noting that it is the “same position we have always held.”
Israel must be uprooted and exterminated because it is a “malignant cancerous tumour in the West Asian area. It is both feasible and will occur. #GreatReturnMarch 7/31/91
When Stahl said to Raisi, “You know that Saudi Arabia is communicating directly with Israel, Morocco, Bahrain, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates have all recognized Israel and have contacts with Israel.
If a state joins hands with a Zionist authority, Raisi said, “They are equally complicit in their atrocities and stabbing the notion of Palestine in the back.”
“You have pledged retribution on the U.S. government for the execution of your General Soleimani,” Stahl questioned.
In January 2020, US soldiers used a drone to murder General Qassem Soleimani, a respected military hero in Iran, close to the Baghdad airport. He died together with nine other people.
For years, Soleimani was regarded as one of Iran’s most influential leaders and the mastermind of several fatal strikes against American soldiers deployed in the area.
The supreme leader of Iran has demanded reprisal.
Then Stahl questioned: Do you want to avenge by killing Trump administration officials?
In response, Raisi said: “What the then-American administration did to kill Mr Qassem Soleimani in the direct direction of Trump himself, this was a horrific crime. We want that justice is done. We won’t let this slip our minds.
Video of Iran, one of the Middle East’s Westernized nations, was shown in other segments of the Sunday interviews.
She said that Stahl’s video of the busy business, crowded bazaars, and clogged-up streets were “as congested as New York.” She described a retail centre with an ice skating rink and a food court serving hot dogs and hamburgers in one of the videos.
In one video, despite the Iranian president’s directive that women must wear modestly or face jail, there were sensual window displays in a mall.
Stahl brought up the case of a young lady who was brutally beaten to death by the police for disobeying the strict head-covering laws of her nation.
When the interview came to an end and Stahl was ready to leave, a member of Raisi’s crew stopped one of the cameramen from recording the tape, which Stahl described as “surprising.”
She said that a member of the president’s security detail took another of their cameramen’s mobile phone away for around two and a half hours.