Share your thoughts on this story:
Iran’s President Faces Protests During Visit
Source: NYTimes.com
NEW YORK, Sept. 24 — Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to face tough questions and protests today, during his first full day in New York of appearances that have already drawn controversy even before he takes the podium.
The Iranian president, who has called for the destruction of Israel and described the Holocaust as a myth, is due to speak to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. via videolink from New York, and later at Columbia University. On Tuesday, he is addressing the United Nations General Assembly.
Mr. Ahmadinejad arrived in the United States on Sunday and addressed people invited by the Iranian mission in a closed event at the New York Hilton.
He also said in an interview, broadcast by CBS television Sunday and conducted in Tehran last week, that Iran did not need a nuclear weapon and the United States and his country were not on a path to war.
“Well, you have to appreciate we don’t need a nuclear bomb,” the Iranian leader said, according to the CBS transcript. “We don’t need that. What needs do we have for a bomb?"
The Bush administration accuses Iran of arming Shiite militias in Iraq as well as developing a nuclear weapons program, charges that the Iranian government denies.
The president’s appearance at Columbia University’s World Leader’s Forum is due to take place at 1:30 p.m. ET.
The university has come under harsh criticism for the decision to host Mr. Ahmadinejad and for giving him a public stage, including from current presidential candidates in the United States, the New York City Council, Jewish organizations and others.
Protesters, including students bused in from other universities and schools, are gathering outside of the university grounds ahead of his speech.
“With the amount of people we will have, we will most likely stretch down a couple of blocks,” said Dani Klein, the campus director for StandWithUs, one of the sponsors of the protests.
“We felt that this went above and beyond the issues of free speech,” he said, adding that their objections included the lack of human rights in Iran and the fact that the university had given him a platform. “You can criticize his views without honoring him the way they are.”
The Columbia University President, Lee C. Bollinger, will address the forum ahead of a question-and-answer session.
“It’s extremely important to know who the leaders are of countries that are your adversaries,” he told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“To watch them to see how they think, to see how they reason or do not reason. To see whether they’re fanatical, or to see whether they are sly."
John Coatsworth, a university dean at Columbia, told CNN that it was his obligation as a school official to present the Iranian president. “If I were not the dean, I would be out there with them,” he said of the protesters.
But he added: “Like it or not, he is an important guy.”
At the National Press Club event, Mr. Ahmadinejad’s speech will be followed by a session of questions from the audience for at least half an hour.
“This will be, in essence, the first dialogue that President Ahmadinejad has had with the Washington press corps,” N.P.C. President Jerry Zremski said in a statement posted on the N.P.C. Web site. “We’re looking forward to hearing what the president has to say, and I am sure that plenty of Washington reporters have plenty of questions for him.”
Mr. Ahmadinejad is allowed under international law and diplomatic protocols to travel freely within a 25-mile radius of Columbus Circle. But the police said last week that Mr. Ahmadinejad would not be allowed anywhere near Ground Zero during his trip.
Last night, at the New York Hilton, Mr. Ahmadinejad addressed people invited by the Iranian mission. The speech was closed to the news media, but a report on Iran’s IRNA news agency said that Mr. Ahmadinajad had said Iran did not need nuclear bombs and described his government as “peace-seeking.”
Some of those invited said that while they did not agree with all of the president’s positions on matters like the role of women in Iran, they stood behind him on the involvement of Israel and the United States in the Middle East.
After the speech, some in the audience said Mr. Ahmadinejad downplayed the interest Iran had in developing nuclear weapons. Mina Z. Siegel, an Iranian-American, said he called building a nuclear weapon “a waste of money” and characterized Iranians as “very peaceful.”
Yesterday, elected officials and students held a rally at Columbia to protest the university’s decision to invite him to speak on campus.
“He should be arrested when he comes to Columbia University, not speak at the university, for God’s sake,” said Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who noted that his mother is a survivor of Auschwitz. “I call on New Yorkers to make the life of Ahmadinejad as he is in New York miserable.”
Manny Fernandez, Jason Grant, Trymaine Lee, Mathew R. Warren and Carolyn Wilder contributed reporting.
I saw this guy on the news this morning from a show yesterday, and he was a joke. He couldn’t give a straight answer to any of the questions and was quite devious looking when he smiled, like a teenager who thinks he’s cute and noone will notice when he’s lying.