Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who sparked outrage last week by again calling the Nazi Holocaust a "myth," will bring a message of peace to the United Nations General Assembly, an aide said, Bloomberg reported.
Ahmadinejad's "most important message this year is to have peace and friendship with all nations and exchanges that are based on justice and mutual respect," Mohammad Jafar Mohammadzadeh, an information deputy in the president's office, told the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.
The Iranian leader will leave Tehran tomorrow to attend the General Assembly meeting at the UN in New York, the aide said.
Ahmadinejad was re-elected in the June 12 election, which the opposition says was rigged. The president and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who endorsed him for a second term, deny the allegations.
Ahmadinejad disregarded today anger over his comment on the Holocaust, according to an IRNA report. "The anger against us of nations who commit crimes in the world is a source of pride," he was quoted as saying today.
During his first term, the Iranian president repeatedly questioned the occurrence or extent of the Holocaust and has frequently echoed the stance of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, on Israel's existence in the Middle East. The Islamic republic doesn't recognize the Jewish state.
Khamenei also directed comments against Israel in a speech made yesterday to honor the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The annual pro-Palestinian Quds Day rally held on Sept. 18 was a "day for all Muslims to shout loudly against this cancer of Zionism which, with the support of oppressive powers, is attacking the Muslim world," Khamenei said in a report on his Web site.
Iran hasn't attacked any country over the past 30 years of the Islamic republic's history and Islamic beliefs dissuade its leaders from seeking to build atomic weapons, Khamenei said.
Israel hasn't ruled out any measures to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi said on Army Radio today.
"Israel has the right to defend itself and all the options are on the table," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon also said, according to his aide, Ashley Perry.
Khamenei, Iran's highest authority, yesterday rejected as "Iranophobia" allegations by the U.S. that his country's nuclear program is aimed at producing a weapon, state-run Press TV reported.
President Barack Obama announced Sept. 17 that he is dropping a plan by his predecessor, George W. Bush, to base missile interceptors in Poland and a radar network in the Czech Republic to protect against any attack by Iran or North Korea.
Iran is under three sets of UN sanctions for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment work that is part of its nuclear program. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said Sept. 18 she expects other nations will reinforce the U.S. stance that Iran will face stronger sanctions unless it halts uranium enrichment.
Though Obama is scheduled to attend the opening of the General Assembly he isn't expected to have "direct engagement" with Ahmadinejad at the UN, Rice said.
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