(JTA) — The foreign minister of Iran was summoned to a closed session of the country’s parliament to clarify public comments he made condemning the Holocaust.

Some 54 hard-line lawmakers signed the petition summoning Mohammad Javad Zarif to the session, Reuters reported, citing the official Iranian news agency IRNA.

The Holocaust was “tragically cruel and should not happen again,” Zarif said earlier this month at the Munich Security Conference.

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad often practiced Holocaust denial in public speeches.

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