The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ofogh TV station broadcast antisemitic remarks by foreign affairs expert Mohammad Ghaderi on March 5 that targeted International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Grossi.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) first reported on the antisemitic comments in a translation on its website.
Accusations made against IAEA head
Ghaderi told Ofogh, “Grossi is an Argentinian diplomat. He is also a Jew. When he arrived at the scene and was elected as head of the IAEA, he had the full support of the US government – which was the Trump administration – and the personal support of Mike Pompeo himself. He had the backing of the Zionist lobby.”
Ghaderi added, “Even though his rival had more votes before the election took place, he was eventually elected due to the heavy lobbying on his behalf.”
Pompeo was the former US secretary of state during the Trump administration.
Alireza Nader, the engagement director for the US-based National Union for a Democratic Iran, told The Jerusalem Post, “It’s not surprising to see regime officials resort to antisemitic tropes in order to justify their own failed foreign and nuclear policies. The Islamic Republic in Iran is the most antisemitic government on earth and the leading propagator of antisemitism in the world.”
Nader is a leading expert on the Iranian regime. The Post reached out to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres because the IAEA falls under the UN body. Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the secretary-general, told the Post, “I’ll defer to the IAEA itself for a response. Please ask the IAEA spokespeople about this.”
The Post sent numerous media queries to Grossi and his spokesman Fredrik Dahl.
The Post also sent press queries to UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran Javaid Rehman. The special rapporteur is tasked with monitoring outbreaks of Jew-hatred in Iran.
Pompeo has said Iran’s regime was the worst state sponsor of antisemitism.
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said during a congressional hearing in 2020 that the Islamic regime in Tehran was the top state sponsor of antisemitism and Holocaust-denial.
Elan Carr, America’s former special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, said that Iran was the “world’s chief trafficker in antisemitism” and that “antisemitism isn’t ancillary to the ideology of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is a central foundational component of the ideology of that regime – and we have to be clear about it, and we have to confront it and call it out for what it is.”
In January 2020, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labeled Iran “the most antisemitic regime on the planet,” during a Holocaust memorial event in Jerusalem.
“I am concerned that we have yet to see a unified and resolute stance against the most antisemitic regime on the planet. A regime that openly seeks to develop nuclear weapons and annihilate the one and only Jewish state,” Netanyahu told world leaders at the time.