January 22, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- More than 100 Iranian intellectuals and activists have issued a statement condemning a conference in Iran last month that questioned the existence of the Holocaust.

Holocaust conference in Tehran on December 12, 2006

The statement was published on the website of the "New York Review of Books." It blasts the Iranian government for the "distortion of historical facts," while paying homage to Jewish and non-Jewish victims of the Nazi regime.

The statement says denial of Nazi crimes against Jews has become a propaganda tool that the Islamic establishment of Iran is using to further its own agendas.