Ahmadinejad: We do not believe in nuclear weapons

NEW YORK — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday during a speech at Columbia University that his country is not pursuing nuclear weapons and that he is open to diplomatic discussions with the United States.

“We do not believe in nuclear weapons. Period,” Ahmadinejad said through a translator in his address at the Columbia University World Leaders Forum.

{mosads}Ahmadinejad, wearing a gray suit and white shirt without a tie, said he is “ready to engage with President Bush about critical international issues.”

“I think that if the U.S. government puts aside some of its behaviors,” he added, “it could be a good friend for the Iranian people.”

Decision-makers in Washington condemned Ahmadinejad, with some also criticizing Columbia for giving him a forum.

“It would be nice for this regime to take some concrete steps to address the agenda that not only the United States has, but really the whole international community, has with the government of Iran,” White House Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to New York, where President Bush will address the United Nations.

GOP presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) reserved his criticism for the Ivy League university.

“I still find it astonishing and astounding that Columbia University would welcome the president of a country that has not only dedicated itself to a policy of extinction of the state of Israel, but as he is speaking, most of the lethal and explosive devices are being exported from Iran into Iraq, endangering and taking the lives of brave Americans who are serving,” McCain said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also criticized the university for allowing Ahmadinejad to speak at its campus.

“By opening its gates to this man’s hateful ideology, Columbia University is allowing him to take full advantage of a golden opportunity to spread it — and giving it a level of deference it does not deserve,” McConnell said on the floor of the Senate.

The Iranian president was challenged by Lee C. Bollinger, the president of the university, to address his previous statements about the reality of the Holocaust, Iran’s dedication to the destruction of Israel, its development of nuclear weapons and its alleged support for terrorist organizations.

“I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions,” Bollinger said in his opening remarks.

Ahamdinejad did, however, address many of Bollinger’s questions, though not always to the satisfaction of the packed auditorium, which booed him occasionally and applauded his comments at other times.

In a thinly veiled swipe at the United States, Ahmadinejad criticized those who use science and technology against the “interest of humanity.” Countries that “tap telephone calls and try to control their people” create a culture of paranoia, he said.

Creating weapons of mass destruction is an improper use of science, the Iranian president added. “What can a perpetual nuclear umbrella threat accomplish for humanity?” he said.

On the destruction of Israel, Ahmadinejad said the thought is contrary to the foundation of Iran. His country, he said, “loves all nations.”

“We are friends with the Jewish people,” he added. “There are many Jews in Iran living peacefully with security.”

Instead of criticizing Israel, the Iranian president advocated recognizing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an international issue and helping the Palestinians control their future through a referendum.

“Our solution is a free referendum,” he said. “Let this referendum happen and then you’ll see what the results are.”

Ahmadinejad avoided denying that the Holocaust had occurred. He argued that his previous statements were misinterpreted and that research on the issue should continue in the pursuit of knowledge.

“Can you argue that researching a phenomenon is finished forever? Done?” he said. “Why do you want to stop the science of research?”

Referring back to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ahmadinejad suggested that Palestinians have been punished for the Holocaust despite not being responsible for it.

“I am not saying that it didn’t happen at all. I asked that, granted this happened, what did it have to do with the Palestinian people? Why is it that the Palestinian people are paying the price for an event that they had nothing to do with it?”

Ahmadinejad also denied the accusation that his country supports terrorist organizations, claiming that the “Iranian nation is a victim of terrorism.”

Ahmadinejad was met by several rallies protesting his appearance at the forum. Student groups organized a rally on campus and hundreds of New Yorkers marched outside the university gates. Columbia’s chapter of Hillel, a Jewish student organization, papered the school’s walls and sidewalks with flyers highlighting previous Ahmadinejad statements. One such quotation read that anyone who recognizes Israel “will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury,” which he said in October of 2005.

Overall, however, the rallies were peaceful and uneventful. Despite the boos he received while speaking, students on Columbia’s quadrangle appeared to be content using the speech as a platform to discuss Iran’s issues.

“We see Ahmadinejad’s visit to campus as an opportunity for us to show this campus and the world the atrocities of the Iranian regime and the threat that it poses to the world,” a junior and member of Hillel, Lauren Steinberg, said.

Asked if this was an opportunity to exchange ideas as an exercise in the First Amendment, as Bollinger stated, Steinberg said: “Well, we’re exchanging.”