Middle East News
Ahmadinejad denies sending weapons into Iraq (Extra)
Sep 24, 2007, 18:07 GMT
Washington - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday rejected accusations by the US military that his country was providing militants in Iraq with weapons.
'This doesn't exist,' Ahmadinejad said in a video press conference from New York with reporters in Washington.
The US military believes the Iranian government through its military has helped train and equip the militants, and that it has clear evidence that Iran has provided weaponry like bombs and arms.
'The military should seek an answer to its defeat in Iraq elsewhere, in the misguided policies that it has led, in the wrong perspective that it has had toward Iraq and its people,' Ahmadinejad said.
The controversial Iranian president was in New York to attend the opening of the UN General Assembly. After talking to reporters, Ahmadinejad was to give an address at Columbia University.
His visit to New York has been the focus of intense media coverage and speculation, because his country has defied UN Security Council demands to halt suspicious nuclear activities, he has trivialized the Holocaust and Iran has been labelled by the US government as the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.
Ahmadinejad defended Iran's human right record, saying a 2007 Amnesty International report critical of human rights in Iran was wrong and reflected a lack of understanding Iran.
'Our people are the freest people in the world, the most aware people in the world, the most enlightened, so to say,' he said.
When asked about discrimination against women in the country, he replied: 'The freest women in the world are women in Iran.'
Ahmadinejad's appearance has generated most of the controversy. Ahmadinejad was greeted by protestors at the university while many others have criticized Columbia for hosting him. Ahmadinejad lashed out at the critics by saying 'we should all have the capacity to listen to everything.'
'I'm surprised, in a place where they claim that they have freedom of information, they are trying to prevent people from talking,' he said. 'That's not good.'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
He never trivialized the holocaust. If you actually read the transcripts of the interviews, instead of listening to the bias interpretations put forth by the mainstream media, you will find that he wonders why the Palestinians are being punished for the holocaust. That's very, very different from diminishing or denying it. He also asks why do people who research the holocaust get arrested. People can research it as well anything else all they want- there is nothing wrong with that. Also, he never called for Israel to be wiped off the map, he called for regime change in the area. And, if he is so anti-Jewish, why does Iran have the largest Jewish population of any Muslim country and Why is there a Jewish representative in the Iranian Parliament? Do your own independent research instead of regurgitating what the corporate media has to stay.
Obviuosly you have very selective reading habits, listening habits and a profound inability to understand what Ahmadinejad's feelings and intentions are.
page: 1
Dave RSep 24th, 2007 - 19:00:03
Ahmadinejad should not confuse the capacity of the free world to listen to everything for the gullibility of it to believe anything.
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