Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday called the official version of the Sept. 11 attacks a “big lie” used by the US as an excuse for the “war on terror,” state media reported.
Ahmadinejad’s comments, made during an address to Intelligence Ministry staff, come amid escalating tensions between the West and Tehran over its disputed nuclear program. They show that Iran has no intention of toning down its rhetoric even with tighter sanctions looming because of its uranium enrichment.
“Sept. 11 was a big lie and a pretext for the war on terror and a prelude to invading Afghanistan,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by state TV.
He called the attacks a “complicated intelligence scenario and act.”
He has questioned the official US version of the Sept. 11 attacks before, but this is the first time he ventured to label it a “big lie.”
In 2007, New York officials rejected Ahmadinejad’s request to visit the World Trade Center site while he was in the city for a UN meeting. At the time, he also told Iranian state TV the attacks were “a result of mismanaging and inhumane managing of the world by the US,” and that the US was using Sept. 11 as an excuse to attack others.
Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad is to travel to Afghanistan today for talks with his counterpart Afghan President Hamid Karzai, an Iranian news agency reported yesterday.
The semi-official Mehr news agency said the one-day trip to Kabul would be Ahmadinejad’s first visit to Afghanistan since both he and Karzai were re-elected last year.
RSS