Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad doubled down on his previous antisemitic and anti-Israel statements, calling Jews “hook-nosed” and denying the Holocaust in an interview with the BBC.

During an appearance on the network’s interview program Hardtalk, Mohamad was questioned about his antisemitism. He responded, “There are many races in this world, I have said nasty things about them but they never accused me of being anti-this or anti-that.”

Asked about his claim that Jews are “hook-nosed,” Mohamad said, “They are hook-nosed. Many people call the Malays flat-nosed. We did not object. We did not go to war for that.”

Mohamad repeated anti-Israel sentiments he expressed on Friday in his speech to the UN General Assembly blaming Israel for terrorism and all regional problems, saying, “If you are going to be truthful, the problem in the Middle East began with the creation of the State of Israel, that is the whole truth.”

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He then openly denied the Holocaust, asserting, “But the Israelis are special, you cannot even mention that in the Holocaust it was not six million.”

Mohamad has been feted during his ongoing visit to Britain. According to the UK’s Daily Mail, on his initial arrival last week, Mohamad first visited Imperial College, where he was warmly welcomed by the vice-president and provost. He followed this with a visit to Oxford University, where he gave a speech at the Centre for Islamic Studies. He then made an appearance at Chatham House, a major British think tank.

Mohamad is perhaps one of the world’s most powerful antisemites. He has said that he is “glad to be labelled anti-Semitic” and equated the Jews with the Nazis.

“Today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them,” he asserted in 2013.

In 2010, he stated, “Jews had always been a problem in European countries. They had been confined in ghettos and periodically massacred. But they still remained and still thrived and held whole governments to ransom.”

Mohamad has also claimed that Jews “are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively.”

In his UN speech, Mohamad blamed Israel for world terrorism and endorsed the Palestinian “right of return,” which would entail the destruction of the Jewish state by weight of demography.

Saying “this present war against the terrorist will not end until the root causes are found,” Mohamad asked, “What are the root causes? In 1948, Palestinian land was seized to form the State of Israel. The Palestinians were massacred and forced to leave their land. Their houses and farms were seized.”

Referring to the Palestinian use of terrorism, Mohamad said, “It is the anger and frustration of the Palestinians and their sympathizers that cause them to resort to what we call terrorism.”

“Let the Palestinians return to reclaim their land,” said Mohamad, endorsing the right of return.