Iranian leader defends 9/11 statement

25 Sep 2010, 8:45 am   -   Source: AAP
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He also challenged the United Nations to set up a commission to study the attacks. (AAP)

He also challenged the United Nations to set up a commission to study the attacks. (AAP)

The Iranian president has defended his claim that most people in the world believe the US was behind the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

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The Iranian president has defended his remarks at the UN in which he claimed most people in the world believe the United States was behind the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

He also challenged the United Nations to set up a commission to study the attacks.

"I did not pass judgment, but don't you feel that the time has come to have a fact-finding committee," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked during a news conference in a New York hotel on Friday.

He also lashed out at the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as an overreaction to the attacks. The Americans should "not occupy the entire Middle East ... bomb wedding parties ... annihilate an entire village just because one terrorist is hiding there."

Ahmadinejad's remarks during a speech to the UN General Assembly on Thursday afternoon prompted a walkout by the US diplomats. Delegations from all 27 European Union nations followed the Americans out along with representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Costa Rica, an EU diplomat said.

President Barack Obama responded to Ahmadinejad in a BBC Persian service interview on Friday saying: "Well, it was offensive. It was hateful."

"And particularly for him to make the statement here in Manhattan, just a little north of Ground Zero, where families lost their loved ones, people of all faiths, all ethnicities who see this as the seminal tragedy of this generation, for him to make a statement like that was inexcusable," Obama said.

Ahmadinejad routinely makes incendiary remarks, which the West claims are a diversion from heavy international pressure on Tehran to end uranium enrichment and prove it is not trying to build a nuclear weapon. Iran insists it is enriching uranium only to fuel nuclear reactors to generate electricity.

Iran is under four sets of UN security council sanctions as punishment for its failure to make its nuclear ambitions transparent.

The Iranian leader said during the news conference he thought it would be able to reopen contact next month to set a framework for negotiations with the five permanent members of the security council - the US, Britain, France, Russia and China as well as Germany.

The grouping is known as the P5+1.

Asked if Iran was ready to stop uranium enrichment, Ahmadinejad said he "will consider" that move if an outside source would proved the 20 per cent enriched fuel Iran needs for a medical research reactor. He claimed yet again "we are not interested in enriching uranium to a level above 20 per cent", which could provide the core for a nuclear weapon.

The P5+1 had offered Iran to send its low enriched uranium to Russia, where it would be further refined to 20 per cent for the medical reactor. Iran rejected that offer and there have been no further negotiations.

Obama has said the door to negotiations remains open. Ahmadinejad has refused to return to talks because of the latest round of tough sanctions imposed on Iran and spearheaded by the US.

On other matters, Ahmadinejad said "I don't have a problem meeting with" Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans who were taken prisoner in Iran during a hiking trip along the border with Iraq. She was released from solitary confinement on September 15 and has said she wants to meet Ahmadinejad while he is in New York.

The Iranian leader did not answer a question about whether he would also release Shourd's boyfriend, Shane Bauer, and their friend, Josh Fattal. All three were captured in 2009.

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Your Comments

Speaks like a lamb

tobby - from sydney, 2 years ago

It was interesting Bush's speech 1 year after 9/11 stated in Boyd report to globalize, America has since the 1800s been predicted here along side its globalizing dark ages friend the Vatican, Rev 13:11 I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. USA has a history of allowing things such as pearl harbor to get the desired turn around effect. Iran stated the obvious but its not politically correct.

All about oil

citizen observer - from sa, 2 years ago

I suspect Bush, Blair & Howard will go down in history as the filthiest war criminals of our times, if truth seeking is ever given some air.

Ahmadinejad and building 7

Max - from Sweden, 2 years ago

Just think about the building 7. Why that one just fell down like a house of cards. He is totally right. Stupid world we live in.

Dr

Paul - from Perth, 2 years ago

....second have a look at this web page (www.ae911truth.org). Here, there is a serious cohort of architects and engineers who have put together a pretty convincing string of research facts and observations concerning the destruction of not only the twin towers but also of WTC building 7, which fell several hours later and was not hit by a plane. The free fall speed of the twin towers, the molten steel (well above max fire temp), the testimony of the fire fighters, the presence of thermite???

Dr

Paul - from Perth, 2 years ago

The reports by the mainstream media citing the political rebuffs by Barack Obama and the UN deligates is entirely predictable. The thought that one of the most filmed and reported incidents on the world stage might have actually involved the cooperation of the US government is nothing short of shocking. Before readers write of the Iranian leader's comments as a slur, I would suggest they do a bit of investigating of their own. First, have a look at Mike Moore's documentary Farenheit 911. ....

Well if this is all he is right on then he at least was right once!

Stevie - from Newcastle, 2 years ago

As Kanye West stated "Bush knocked down the Towers" There are so so so so many holes in evidence it is utterly shocking,Fires not being hot enough to melt the steel structuring which were all shewn off such as in explosion,WTC 7 "falling down" 3 days later in the exact manner of a planned explosion, the 1st time in history that has ever happened,no evidence of plane in pentagon,multiple witnesses of explosions in lower floors of the towers,towers designed 2withstand impacts, thats just surface

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