[h=3]By JAY SOLOMON[/h]
REUTERS Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flashes the peace sign during the United Nations General Assembly in New York Monday.
NEW YORK—Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad played down the prospects of an Israeli military strike on his country's nuclear installations, but made clear that Tehran would hold the U.S. responsible if such an attack occurred.
"Fundamentally, we don't take seriously the threats of the Zionists," Iran's leader said Monday at a breakfast with journalists, referring to the state of Israel. "If such an attack were to happen, all equations in the region would see a deep change."
Mr. Ahmadinejad is attending this week's annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly for the last time as Iran's leader. His second four-year presidential term ends in June.
His appearances in New York, including his public bromides on Israel and questioning of both the Holocaust and Sept. 11 attacks, have become an annual event, often to the chagrin of Western governments.
Mr. Ahmadinejad continued in that vein on Monday, charging that the Israeli state was at a "dead end" and claiming that the Iranian economy, despite international sanctions, is surviving and even doing better than those in Europe.
A spokesman for the White House National Security Council, Tommy Vietor, called Mr. Ahmadinejad's comments "disgusting, offensive, and outrageous," adding, "They underscore again why America's commitment to the security of Israel must be unshakable, and why the world must hold Iran accountable for its utter failure to meet its obligations."
Despite his trademark bluster, the 55-year-old Iranian president is visiting New York with Tehran in a weaker position than in previous years.
His country faces Israeli threats and intensified Western sanctions. It also is at risk of losing its closest ally in the Arab world—embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Damascus has provided Tehran with a channel for sending arms and funds to Iranian allies fighting Israel—Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.
Arab leaders have roundly criticized Iran for allegedly supporting Mr. Assad's crackdown on his political opponents over the past 18 months, which human-rights groups say have claimed as many 20,000 Syrians.
Mr. Ahmadinejad on Monday publicly disputed comments made recently by senior Iranian military officials that acknowledged Iran's military support for Mr. Assad.
"We seek peace in Syria," Iran's leader said. "We like and love both sides."
U.S. officials have grown increasingly confident that the West's financial war on Tehran is having a growing impact.
Treasury officials estimate that sanctions are costing Iran $15 billion in lost revenue each quarter. And the value of the Iranian currency, the rial, has lost at least half of its value against the U.S. dollar from a year ago.
But Mr. Ahmadinejad said Western countries were deluded if they believed financial pressure would force Tehran to end its nuclear program.
"The situation in Iran is not as bad as some suggest," the Iranian president said, while declining to confirm reports that Tehran's oil exports have dropped by one million barrels per day.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ahmadinejad sought to score points in his public-relations war against the U.S., chastising the State Department's decision last week to delist an Iranian opposition group from a U.S. terrorism list.
The Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, was charged by the U.S. with allying with the former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein and conducting a campaign of assassinations against Iranian and American officials in the 1970s and 1980s. The MeK's supporters, despite this U.S. ban, launched an extensive lobbying campaign inside Washington over the past 18 months to get off the list, including paying former U.S. officials to give speeches.
"If we wanted to show the double standards of the American government, we couldn't have done it better ourselves," Mr. Ahmadinejad said, in reference to the MeK's delisting. "The U.S. government gave us a gift for free."
Iran's leader refused to condemn the rioting that broke out across the Islamic world in recent weeks following the posting of a video that criticized the Muslim faith's prophet, Muhammad.
Mr. Ahmadinejad was asked at the breakfast whether the Islamic Republic had formally lifted a 1980s religious decree that called for the death of the British writer Salman Rushdie, who wrote a novel that Muslim leaders considered anti-Islamic.
"Where is he now?" Mr. Ahmadinejad said of Mr. Rushdie, without addressing the question. "Is he in the U.S.? You shouldn't broadcast this for his own safety."
Write to Jay Solomon at [email protected]
REUTERS Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flashes the peace sign during the United Nations General Assembly in New York Monday.
NEW YORK—Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad played down the prospects of an Israeli military strike on his country's nuclear installations, but made clear that Tehran would hold the U.S. responsible if such an attack occurred.
"Fundamentally, we don't take seriously the threats of the Zionists," Iran's leader said Monday at a breakfast with journalists, referring to the state of Israel. "If such an attack were to happen, all equations in the region would see a deep change."
Mr. Ahmadinejad is attending this week's annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly for the last time as Iran's leader. His second four-year presidential term ends in June.
His appearances in New York, including his public bromides on Israel and questioning of both the Holocaust and Sept. 11 attacks, have become an annual event, often to the chagrin of Western governments.
Mr. Ahmadinejad continued in that vein on Monday, charging that the Israeli state was at a "dead end" and claiming that the Iranian economy, despite international sanctions, is surviving and even doing better than those in Europe.
A spokesman for the White House National Security Council, Tommy Vietor, called Mr. Ahmadinejad's comments "disgusting, offensive, and outrageous," adding, "They underscore again why America's commitment to the security of Israel must be unshakable, and why the world must hold Iran accountable for its utter failure to meet its obligations."
Despite his trademark bluster, the 55-year-old Iranian president is visiting New York with Tehran in a weaker position than in previous years.
His country faces Israeli threats and intensified Western sanctions. It also is at risk of losing its closest ally in the Arab world—embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Damascus has provided Tehran with a channel for sending arms and funds to Iranian allies fighting Israel—Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.
Arab leaders have roundly criticized Iran for allegedly supporting Mr. Assad's crackdown on his political opponents over the past 18 months, which human-rights groups say have claimed as many 20,000 Syrians.
Mr. Ahmadinejad on Monday publicly disputed comments made recently by senior Iranian military officials that acknowledged Iran's military support for Mr. Assad.
"We seek peace in Syria," Iran's leader said. "We like and love both sides."
U.S. officials have grown increasingly confident that the West's financial war on Tehran is having a growing impact.
Treasury officials estimate that sanctions are costing Iran $15 billion in lost revenue each quarter. And the value of the Iranian currency, the rial, has lost at least half of its value against the U.S. dollar from a year ago.
But Mr. Ahmadinejad said Western countries were deluded if they believed financial pressure would force Tehran to end its nuclear program.
"The situation in Iran is not as bad as some suggest," the Iranian president said, while declining to confirm reports that Tehran's oil exports have dropped by one million barrels per day.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ahmadinejad sought to score points in his public-relations war against the U.S., chastising the State Department's decision last week to delist an Iranian opposition group from a U.S. terrorism list.
The Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, was charged by the U.S. with allying with the former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein and conducting a campaign of assassinations against Iranian and American officials in the 1970s and 1980s. The MeK's supporters, despite this U.S. ban, launched an extensive lobbying campaign inside Washington over the past 18 months to get off the list, including paying former U.S. officials to give speeches.
"If we wanted to show the double standards of the American government, we couldn't have done it better ourselves," Mr. Ahmadinejad said, in reference to the MeK's delisting. "The U.S. government gave us a gift for free."
Iran's leader refused to condemn the rioting that broke out across the Islamic world in recent weeks following the posting of a video that criticized the Muslim faith's prophet, Muhammad.
Mr. Ahmadinejad was asked at the breakfast whether the Islamic Republic had formally lifted a 1980s religious decree that called for the death of the British writer Salman Rushdie, who wrote a novel that Muslim leaders considered anti-Islamic.
"Where is he now?" Mr. Ahmadinejad said of Mr. Rushdie, without addressing the question. "Is he in the U.S.? You shouldn't broadcast this for his own safety."
Write to Jay Solomon at [email protected]