Iranian president Hassan Rowhani would not directly answer Ann Curry's question about whether he, like predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, believed the Holocaust did not occur, in an interview on Today shown Thursday morning.
Ahmadinejad considered his persistent denial of the Holocaust to be one of the crowning achievements of his presidency.
Rowhani, who has been hailed by some in the media as a moderate, said he was a politician, not a historian.
CURRY: Much of what Americans think about Iran is influenced by your predecessor and some statements that he has made. So let me ask you. President Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust is a myth. Do you agree?
ROWHANI: I'm not a historian. I'm a politician. What is important for us is that the countries of the region and the people grow closer to each other, and that they are able to prevent aggression and injustice.
Rowhani recently appointed a Holocaust denier as his foreign minister, and he was on the special Iranian government committee that plotted the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, according to a report by the Washington Free Beacon.