Why Iran Picks on the Holocaust

Over at the FP Shadow Government blog Christian Brose mentions the tirade by Iranian Ali Larijani at the Munich Security Conference.

Larijani launched into a 20-minute rant about America's many historical sins against Iran, enumerating them as he went, beginning in 1958 with the backing of the Shah (#1) and continuing on up to the recent war in Gaza (#10 as I recall). Presumably this was just the abridged, modern history. Surely the Declaration of Independence was an affront to Persian dignity and an attempt to destabilize the Zand dynasty.

Emphasis mine. I know a lot of people are pretty annoyed by the ongoing official discourse by the Iranians on the Holocaust. But there is actually a neat little message wrapped in it that people seem to all miss.

The Holocaust was a major, historic tragedy in the West. And there is no dispute that it occurred - there are mountains of evidence. In Iran, the regime of the Shah was an undeniably brutal and tragic period in their history. And that it was abetted by the US is not in dispute - there are mountains of evidence. We rightly denounce them for casting doubt on the Holocaust; but when the Iranians mention the horror and pain of that period all they get is smug little remarks like above to the effect of "stop crying about it". The past does matter - all of it.