The Council on Foreign Relations said Ahmadinejad engaged in a spirited debate with 19 members for about 90 minutes in a New York City hotel late on September 20. But the Council said the Iranian leader offered no new policies or opinions.
The subjects ranged from Iran's disputed nuclear program to the Holocaust.
The trip to the think tank was controversial, provoking protests from American Jewish groups.
Ahmadinejad has called the Holocaust a "myth" and has demanded more research to determine whether 6 million Jews really perished in World War II.
(AP, The New York Times)
Iranian Anti-Zionism
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Each year in Iran, the last Friday of Ramadan is celebrated as Qods (Jerusalem) Day, officially a day for expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people."I have been notifying the Muslims of the danger posed by the usurper Israel," Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, father of Iran's Islamic Revolution, said in an August 1979 announcement. "I ask all the Muslims of the world and the Muslim governments to join together to sever the hand of this usurper and its supporters...and, through a ceremony demonstrating the solidarity of Muslims worldwide, announce their support for the legitimate rights of the Muslim people..." (more)
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INTERVIEW: On December 22, 2005, RFE/RL's Radio Farda spoke with FRED ZEIDMAN, director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Zeidman commented on Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's anti-Israeli comments.
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Hear the complete interview (about nine minutes):
ARCHIVE: For an archive of RFE/RL's coverage of Iran, click here.