Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad starts his third visit to the United States on 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.