A senior Iranian cleric, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, has made claims that the Nazi Holocaust of Jews during World War II is simply a "new superstition for the West."

The state news agency IRNA reported the words of the Ayatollah, who said: "The Holocaust is nothing but superstition, but Zionists say that people of the world should be forced to accept this."

He went on to say: "Americans and Westerners are affected by newly appeared superstitions such as the Holocaust. The truth about the Holocaust is not clear, and when the researchers want to examine whether it is true or the Jews have created it to pose as victims, they jail the researchers."

Shirazi, who is one of the highest authorities on Shiite Islam, appeared to be mirroring the anti-Israel claims of Iran’s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has himself repeatedly branded the Holocaust a "myth."