Iran has mocked the Holocaust by staging a Nazi-themed cartoon contest as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns the Islamic Republic is planning for another genocide.

The exhibit featured some 150 works from 50 countries, with many portraying Israel as using the Holocaust to distract from the suffering of the Palestinians, and others comparing Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Iran has long backed armed groups committed to Israel's destruction and its leaders have called for it to be wiped off the map. Israel fears that Iran's nuclear program is designed to threaten its very existence.

But Netanyahu said Sunday it was more than Iran's belligerent policies that Israel opposed, but its values.

The Israeli Prime Minister lashed out at Iran for staging a second Holocaust-themed cartoon contest that mocked the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews. Pictured: A cartoon from 2016 competition

Iran has long backed armed groups committed to Israel's destruction and its leaders have called for it to be wiped off the map. Pictured: A cartoon from 2016 competition

PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday it was more than Iran's belligerent policies that Israel opposed, but its values. Pictured: A woman inspects her pictures from the exhibition

'It denies the Holocaust, it mocks the Holocaust and it is also preparing another Holocaust,' Netanyahu said at his weekly cabinet meeting. 'I think that every country in the world must stand up and fully condemn this.'

State Department spokesman Mark Toner, traveling with Secretary of State John Kerry in Saudi Arabia, said the United States was concerned the contest could 'be used as a platform for Holocaust denial and revisionism and egregiously anti-Semitic speech, as it has in the past'.

'Such offensive speech should be condemned by the authorities and civil society leaders rather than encouraged. We denounce any Holocaust denial and trivialization as inflammatory and abhorrent. It is insulting to the memory of the millions of people who died in the Holocaust,' Toner said.

The denial or questioning of the genocide is widespread in the Middle East, where many regard it as a pretext Israel used for its creation and to excuse its actions toward the Palestinians.

But speaking to the New Yorker in April, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, said of the contest: 'It's not Iran. It's an NGO that is not controlled by the Iranian government. Nor is it endorsed by the Iranian government.'

Zarif told the New Yorker that the exhibition did not need a permit but all exhibitions or conferences in Iran need a permit from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, according to Iran Wire.

In April, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (left) said: 'It's not Iran'. But Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (right) said Sunday it was more than Iran's belligerent policies that Israel opposed, but its values

Contest organizer Masuod Shojai Tabatabaei (second from left) said: 'Holocaust means mass killing. We are witnessing the biggest killings by the Zionist regime in Gaza and Palestine'

And contest organizer Masuod Shojai Tabatabaei told Nasim news agency that he was 'coordinating [the competition] with Ministry of Culture and officials… have been kept informed about the event.'

While Iran's President Hassan Rouhani’s government may not be directly and officially responsible for the exhibition, if it seriously opposed it, the administration could refuse to issue a permit and deny visas to participants, according to Iran Wire.

Tabatabaei said in a separate interview: 'Holocaust means mass killing. We are witnessing the biggest killings by the Zionist regime in Gaza and Palestine.'

He said the purpose of the Tehran event was not to deny the Holocaust but rather to criticize alleged Western double standards regarding free expression - and particularly as a response to depictions of the Prophet Muhammad by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and others.

The contest was organized by non-governmental bodies with strong support from Iran's hardliners.

A previous contest in 2006 got a boost from then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a hardliner who referred to the Holocaust as a 'myth' and repeatedly predicted Israel's demise.

Contest organizer Masuod Shojai Tabatabaei told Nasim news agency that he was 'coordinating [the competition] with Ministry of Culture and officials… have been kept informed about the event'

The exhibit featured some 150 works from 50 countries, with many portraying Israel as using the Holocaust to distract from the suffering of the Palestinians, and others comparing Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler