Stockholm, April 19 (RHC)-- Sweden's Minister of Housing Mehmet Kaplan has resigned under mounting pressure over remarks he reportedly made seven years ago comparing the Israeli regime to the former Nazi regime in Germany.

Sweden's Prime Minster Stefan Lofven announced on Monday that Kaplan had submitted his resignation and that he had accepted it.  The 44-year-old Turkish born-minister has come under increasing pressure since last week, when a Swedish daily published the comments he had made seven years ago about Israel.

The Svenska Dagbladet daily quoted Kaplan as saying in March 2009 that "Israelis treat Palestinians in a way that is very like that in which Jews were treated during Germany in the 1930s."  Kaplan confirmed that he was stepping down because of increasing criticism by the public and media, which he said had made it impossible for him to do his job.