Iran students rebel over Holocaust denial

TEHRAN, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking at a Tehran conference denying the existence of the Holocaust, said Israel will disappear like the Soviet Union.

He made the remarks challenging the World War II extermination of 6 million Jews by Nazis to 67 invited delegates from 30 countries on the conference's second and final day and drew applause, Ynetnews.com reported.

"Israel is about to crash," Ahmadinejad said. "This is God's promise and the wish of all the world's nations."

He also defended remarks he made earlier this year about Israel being wiped from the map.

"Everyone must know that just as the U.S.S.R. disappeared, this will also be the fate of the Zionist regime, and humanity will be free," he said.

The conference was organized by the Iranian Institute for Political and International Studies, which is overseen by the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

Among those attending the conference is David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader, and U.S. and European rabbis from the fringe ultra-Orthodox group Neturei Karta, whose theology says there should be no Jewish state until the Messiah arrives.