WASHINGTON - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that talk of war against his country was "propaganda" and reiterated that it had every right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program.
Speaking at the start of a deeply controversial visit to the United States for an annual United Nations meeting, he said Iran was working with UN nuclear inspectors "and our activities are legal and for peaceful purposes."
"We think that talk of war is a propaganda tool. Why is there a need for a war?" he told the National Press Club in Washington, through an interpreter via satellite from the UN in New York.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in media interviews a week ago that France was preparing for the "worst" scenario with Iran, which he said was "war."
Ahmadinejad said Kouchner had since rowed back on the remark, "and secondly, the United States and France don`t speak for the world."
"I think officials who talk this kind of talk should really be pressured and warned to know what to say and when not to say something. They cannot endanger world security," the Iranian leader said.
The "cultured" people of France did not want war with Iran, he said.
"I think of course give the foreign minister time to gain more experience in his new position too. And then I am sure he will talk from a level of higher maturity."
France has taken an increasingly strong line in the dispute over Iran`s uranium enrichment program, which the United States and its allies fear is an effort to build an atomic bomb.
The UN Security Council has adopted three resolutions against Iran. Two include sanctions because of Iran`s refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
Asked about Iraq, Ahmadinejad again denied that Iran was providing advanced weapons to Shiite extremists to use against US troops.
"We think, in fact, the (US) military should seek an answer to its defeat in Iraq elsewhere," he said, insisting Tehran wanted a stable Iraq on its border.
Ahmadinejad, who has called for the destruction of Israel and downplayed the Holocaust, said he was open to meeting survivors of the devastating Nazi pogrom against the Jews.
"But let us remember then where did the Holocaust happen to begin with? It happened in Europe. And given that, why is it that the Palestinian people should be displaced?" he said.
jit/jkb
09/24/2007 17:48 GMT