Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate Elie Wiesel has cautioned against comparing the Iranian threat to the atrocities carried out by the Nazis.

Mr Wiesel, 83, told Globes that it was "unacceptable and impossible to make comparisons with the Holocaust".

The survivor, who was born in Romania and was a prisoner in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, said: "Iran is a danger, but to claim that it is creating a second Auschwitz? I compare nothing to the Holocaust."

He added: "Only Auschwitz was Auschwitz. I went to Yugoslavia when reporters said that there was a Holocaust starting there. There was genocide, but not an Auschwitz. "When you make a comparison to the Holocaust it works both ways, and soon people will say what happened in Auschwitz was 'only what happened in Bosnia.'"

His remarks came as both Israel's president and prime minister expressed concern about Iranian nuclear ambitions during speeches at the official Yom Ha'Shoah service in Jerusalem.

Benjamin Netanyahu warned: "Those who dismiss the Iranian threat as a whim or an exaggeration haven't learned a thing from the Holocaust."