He may be the West's favourite bogeyman but Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insists he's really just another guy. "I am an ordinary person, a father, a husband, a brother, an uncle, a friend," he tells AFP in an interview. "I live just like everyone else," the 53-year-old said with a laugh.
"I have a family," made up of a wife, two sons and a daughter. "We go to family get-togethers, we go out. We play sports." The laugh follows a flashing trademark smile that can be disarming when the subject turns to nuclear ambitions and other weighty issues that plague Iran.
With Iraq's Saddam Hussein long gone, Ahmadinejad's harangues against Israel and the United States have earnt him the mantle of the man the West loves to hate. He had spent the whole day Friday meeting fellow politicians, staging yet another feisty press conference and giving interviews to various media outlets on the sidelines of the climate summit in the Danish capital.
But as evening wears on he shows no sign of boredom or annoyance even in the face of personal questions intended to shed light on the character that seems to relish repeated defiance of the international community.
When he's not launching impassioned tirades against the Great Satan, Ahmadinejad says his life is normal for a devout Muslim living in the Islamic Republic.
"Who said I hate the West?" he asks, turning the original question on its head. "I just disagree with some of the things done by some politicians who are not honest and behave badly in the West." The blacksmith's son does not open up during the 45-minute chat in a five-star airport hotel decked out with Christmas trees and lights. "Happy Christmas," he shouts holding out his hand to shake before marching off for the next meeting.