By HERB KEINON, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
01/18/2012 06:31
BUDAPEST – Iran’s ambassador to Hungary took part in a ceremony here Tuesday launching events marking the 100th birthday of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved more than 20,000 Hungarian Jews in the waning days of World War II.
Israeli diplomatic officials pointed out that not only did Iranian Ambassador Seyed Agha Banihashemi Saeed remain for the duration of the two-hour ceremony, but that he did not walk out when Minister- without-Portfolio Yossi Peled, himself a Holocaust survivor, addressed the gathering.
While the officials downplayed the overall significance of the Iranian ambassador’s presence, noting the entire diplomatic corps stationed in Budapest was invited to the event, official Iranian participation in an event marking the Holocaust is unusual given Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s history of Holocaust denial.
The ceremony, in a highceilinged, ornate, portrait hall in Budapest’s National Museum, took place 67 years to the day that Wallenberg was last seen alive on the streets of Budapest.
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