Quds Day
At the September 2009 Quds Day ceremonies in Tehran, he stated Israel was created on "a lie and a mythical claim," that the Western powers "launched the myth of the Holocaust. They lied, they put on a show and then they support the Jews" – what the "New York Times" considered "among his harshest statements on the topic," and one immediately condemned by the U.S., UK, French and German governments.