Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday said that Israel was doomed like "an airplane that has lost its engine" and reiterated his refusal to accept the Holocaust as historical truth, asserting that the Palestinians should not be made to "pay for" events that "may have occurred during World War II."
"Who are these people? Where did they come from?" he asked in an interview published in Tuesday's Los Angeles Times, referring to the Jewish refugees from Europe who founded the state of Israel in 1948.
"If we agree and accept that certain events had occurred during World War II, well, where did they indeed happen? In Germany, in Poland… Now what exactly does this have to do with Palestine? Why is it that the Palestinian people should pay for it?"
The Iranian leader, in New York for the UN General Assembly and a host of meetings and events on the sidelines of the session, repeated his espousal of a single state solution in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
He would present the idea to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a meeting later Monday, he said.
Ahmadinejad rejected out of hand Israeli efforts to disrupt his country's alliance with Syria via indirect talks with Damascus, expressing skepticism as to Israel's authentic willingness to part with the Golan Heights in exchange for peace with its neighbor to the north.
The Silent Children Display, this morning across the UN building before Ahmadinejad’s speech. The display has 140 images of blindfolded children holding a black balloon in their hand, symbolizing the same number of juveniles executed in Iran.
Photo: Shahar Azran
"We believe that the freedom of the Golan Heights is exactly what the Zionist regime does not want," he said.
"We think it is very unlikely it will happen as a result of the negotiations," he added, in what appeared to be an allusion to his regime's extensive military and financial support for Hizbullah in Lebanon.
The Iranian president also reiterated his claim to the effect that recent allegations made by the International Atomic Energy Agency hinging on the possibility that Teheran was pursuing atomic weapons were the outcome of US pressure on the UN watchdog.
"All the documentation was forged," he scoffed. "In fact, it was so funny and superficial and not in depth that a school kid could laugh at it."
Iran's president also blamed US military interventions around the world in part for the collapse of global financial markets and said the campaign against his country's nuclear program was solely due to the Bush administration "and a couple of their European friends."
"Problems do not arise suddenly," he said. "The US government has made a series of mistakes in the past few decades. The imposition on the US economy of the years of heavy military engagement and involvement around the world . . . the war in Iraq, for example. These are heavy costs imposed on the US economy.
"The world economy can no longer tolerate the budgetary deficit and the financial pressures occurring from markets here in the United States, and by the US government," he added.
In a separate interview with National Public Radio, Ahmadinejad said he does not want confrontation with the United States. He said he wants diplomatic relations to develop between the two countries and was willing, for example, to cooperate on upholding security in Iraq.
"We do not have confrontations with anyone," he said. "The US administration interferes, and we defend ourselves."
According to a report on Tuesday on Iran's National Public Radio Web site, Ahmadinejad claimed that the "people of the world - the majority actually - support our stand."
Despite UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, Ahmadinejad claimed vast international support for his position and said the campaign consisted "of only three or four countries, led by the United States and with a couple of their European friends."
The Iranian leader warned over the weekend that the military would strike back against anyone targeting his country's nuclear facilities.
"If anyone allows himself to commit even a tiny offense against Iran's legitimate interests, borders and sacred land, our armed forces will break his hand before he pulls the trigger," Ahmadinejad said during a military parade Sunday.
The interviews with Ahmadinejad came ahead of his speech to the United Nations.
