TEHRAN, Iran — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that the American people are eager to hear different opinions about the world, and he is looking forward to having the chance to voice them during his trip to the U.S., state media reported.
The hardline Iranian leader left Sunday for New York to address the U.N. General Assembly and speak to students and teachers during a forum at Columbia University.
Ahmadinejad said the American people have been denied “correct information,” and his visit will give them a chance to hear a different voice, the official IRNA news agency reported.
“The United States is a big and important country with a population of 300 million. Due to certain issues, the American people in the past years have been denied correct and clear information about global developments and are eager to hear different opinions,” Ahmadinejad said.
His request to lay a wreath at ground zero, site of the 2001 World Trade Center terror attacks, was denied by city officials and condemned by politicians.
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran were heightened in recent days
after U.S. forces detained an Iranian official in northern Iraq.
Washington has said it is addressing the situation in Iran diplomatically, rather than militarily,but U.S. officials also say that all options are open. The commander of the U.S. military forces in the Middle East said he does not believe tension will lead to war.
“This constant drum beat of conflict is what strikes me, which is not helpful and not useful,” Adm. William Fallon, head of
U.S. Central Command, said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television, which made a partial transcript available Sunday.