Former Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond has been criticised after he said it was “inappropriate” for an Israeli official to condemn Iran during a Holocaust Memorial Day event.

Mr Salmond’s comments came on the same day that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had marked last week’s memorial day by denying the Shoah.

Now an SNP MP and the party’s foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Salmond also represents Britain at the Council of Europe.
He said it was wrong for Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States, to criticise Iran president Hassan Rouhani’s visits to France and Italy at the council ahead of an HMD service.

Mr Salmond said there was a “time and place for international politics” and that Mr Oren had been wrong to make the critical comments “during a solemn commemoration service”.

Former Labour Friends of Israel chairman John Woodcock MP said Mr Salmond, who visited Iran in December, had displayed “breath-taking pomposity”.