[NYTr] Iranian president begins US visit amid deep controversy

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AFP - Sep 24, 2007
http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/070924103957.en6e394w.html

Iranian president begins US visit amid deep controversy

NEW YORK (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad starts his third
visit to the United States Monday with two public appearances that have
kicked up a storm of controversy.

The Iranian leader, who has called for the destruction of Israel and
questioned the Holocaust, was to address the National Press Club in
Washington by video conference and to speak at Columbia University.

He is to address the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

Ahmadinejad said before leaving Tehran on Sunday that the visit would
allow him to meet independent politicians from Tehran's arch foe and
give Iran an international platform.

"The General Assembly of the United Nations is a good opportunity to
present the solutions of the Iranian people to solve the problems of
the world," he 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."

The visit faces protests in the United States, which has accused Iran
of trying to acquire nuclear weapons and considers the Iranian leader
an ally of insurgents attacking US troops deployed in Iraq.

Speaking in an interview with CBS television conducted in Tehran last
week, Ahmadinejad downplayed Iran's nuclear ambitions and said there
was no reason to think that the United States and Iran were on a path
to war.

"You have to appreciate we don't need a nuclear bomb. We don't need
that. What need do we have for a bomb?" the Iranian leader said.

"It's wrong to think that Iran and the US are walking towards war. Who
says so? Why should we go to war? There is no war in the offing."

During a meeting with Iranian expatriates Sunday, Ahmadinejad
reaffirmed his country's peaceful intentions and vowed not to give up
the nuclear program.

"Iranians may give up many things but will not back down on their
national interests by one iota," the president told his compatriots,
according to official Iranian media. "They want us to give up
enrichment so they can sell us nuclear fuel drop-by-drop with frequent
threats of sanctions and exorbitant prices." 

Ahmadinejad's trip comes at a low point in relations between Iran and
the United States, which have not had formal diplomatic ties since 1979.

Even before he arrived, city politicians and Jewish groups mounted
protests against the visit, urging Columbia University to withdraw its
invitation to the Iranian leader.

Around 100 protesters gathered outside the university Sunday bearing
placards with slogans such as "Don't give a platform to hate," and
denouncing Ahmadinejad as a "Hitler wannabe" and a Holocaust denier.

"There is no excuse to invite this madman, this little Hitler," said
New York assemblyman Dov Hikind, who counts Holocaust survivors among
his constituents. "This is immoral. This is outrageous. This is sick."

Protesters were due to mount further rallies at Columbia on Monday and
Iranian opposition exiles were to demonstrate at the United Nations on
Tuesday while Ahmadinejad addresses the world body.

Columbia president Lee Bollinger, however, defended the decision to
invite Ahmadinejad, saying the university "as a community dedicated to
learning and scholarship, is committed to confronting ideas."

Bollinger said he would introduce the event and challenge Ahmadinejad's
comments on the Holocaust, his calls for the destruction of Israel and
Tehran's pursuit of a nuclear program in the face of international
opposition.

What angered many New Yorkers more than anything was Ahmadinejad's plan
to lay a wreath at Ground Zero -- the site of the September 11, 2001
attacks. City officials denied permission for the visit last week on
security grounds.

President George W. Bush offered support to city officials, saying: "I
can understand why they would not want somebody running a country who
is the state sponsor of terror down at the site."

And while Ahmadinejad told CBS he would not insist on visiting the site
if city officials could not arrange it, foreign ministry spokesman
Mohammad Ali Hosseini suggested a visit to Ground Zero was still on the
itinerary.

The United States is obliged by diplomatic convention and as host of
the United Nations to allow representatives of member states to visit
areas within 40 kilometers (25 miles) of the world body's New York
headquarters.