Agence France-Presse,
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Monday dismissed talk of war against Iran as “propaganda” and combatively took on US critics who accuse him of denying the Holocaust and backing terrorism.
At the start of a deeply controversial visit to attend UN meetings here, the Iranian leader insisted his Islamic republic had every right to pursue a civilian nuclear program and said “we are a peace-loving nation.”
In a tense exchange at New York's Columbia University, Ahmadinejad accused the institute's president Lee Bollinger of a “wave of insults and allegations against me” after Bollinger had introduced the Iranian leader.
Inviting Ahmadinejad to speak at one of America's leading centers of learning “is consistent with the idea that one should know thine enemy … to confront with the mind of evil,” Bollinger had said to cheers from students.
Ahmadinejad grew more relaxed as he got into his stride to accuse the United States of trying to block Iran's legitimate desire to achieve scientific progress in its atomic program.
“We do not believe in nuclear weapons. Period. This goes against the whole grain of humanity,” he said.
Smiling and occasionally laughing as he explained Iran's culture and outlook on the world, Ahmadinejad drew the biggest jeers from students for stating that his country has no homosexuals.
“In Iran we don't have this phenomenon, I don't know who you told this,” he exclaimed, while also insisting that Iran was a “victim” of terrorism and not an instigator.
Ahmadinejad, who has called for the destruction of Israel and downplayed the Holocaust, said he was open to meeting survivors of the devastating Nazi pogrom against the Jews.
“But let us remember then where did the Holocaust happen to begin with? It happened in Europe. And given that, why is it that the Palestinian people should be displaced?” he said earlier via satellite to Washington's National Press Club.
He also said Iran was working with UN nuclear inspectors “and our activities are legal and for peaceful purposes.
“We think that talk of war is a propaganda tool. Why is there a need for a war?”
France has taken an increasingly strong line in the dispute over Iran's uranium enrichment program, which the United States and its allies fear is an effort to build an atomic bomb.
The UN Security Council has adopted three resolutions against Iran. Two include sanctions because of Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
Speaking at the UN, which Ahmadinejad was to address Tuesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said France was ready to help any country that wants to have civilian nuclear power.
“It is the best response to those who, in violation of all the treaties, want to arm themselves with nuclear weapons,” he said, as the UN Security Council debates new sanctions over Iran's atomic program.
Asked about Iraq, Ahmadinejad again denied Iran was providing advanced weapons to Shiite extremists to use against US troops.
“We think, in fact, the (US) military should seek an answer to its defeat in Iraq elsewhere,” he said, insisting Tehran wanted a stable Iraq on its border.
Outside Columbia, 100 protestors gathered to vent their fury that Ahmadinejad had been given a venue to speak out.
“Stop Ahmadinejad, the Hitler of Iran,” chanted one protester, Mordechi Levy of the Jewish Defense Organization, calling for alumni to boycott the university.
The New York Post headlined its story of Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia “Madman Guest of Dishonor,” after earlier crying “Evil has Landed.”
The tabloid press led a public outcry over a request by Ahmadinejad to visit the Ground Zero site of New York's World Trade Center, whose twin towers were felled in the September 11 attacks of 2001.
His desired visit to what many Americans view as hallowed ground was nixed by New York police for security reasons, but in any case it would have been a “travesty,” according to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“I think this is somebody who is the president of a country that is probably the greatest sponsor of state-sponsored terrorism, someone who is a Holocaust denier, someone who has talked about wiping other countries off the map,” she told the CNBC television network.
But ahead of his UN speech, Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency: “We need to take advantage of such opportunities to present the positions of the Iranian people as they (the Americans) are very keen to hear them.”
