Iran president blames Wall Street turmoil on U.S. 'military engagement'

NEW YORK — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Monday that the turmoil on Wall Street is rooted in part in U.S. military intervention abroad and voiced hope that the next American administration will retreat from what he called President Bush's "logic of force."

He also asserted, in an interview with The Times, that Israel is doomed "like an airplane that has lost its engine" and that Western intelligence documents questioning the peaceful purpose of Iran's nuclear program were crude forgeries.

The U.N. General Assembly opened its fall session Monday in a state of alarm over a global financial crisis. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he feared a "serious negative impact" on his effort to secure increased pledges this week from rich nations to aid the poorest, which are already reeling from increases in food and energy prices.

Before joining the annual fall debate, Ahmadinejad sounded a provocative note on the topic during a 40-minute interview with Times editors and a reporter in a Midtown Manhattan hotel suite heavily guarded by agents of the Department of Homeland Security.

"Problems do not arise suddenly," he said. "The U.S. government has made a series of mistakes in the past few decades. The imposition on the U.S. economy of the years of heavy military engagement and involvement around the world . . . the war in Iraq, for example. These are heavy costs imposed on the U.S. economy.

"The world economy can no longer tolerate the budgetary deficit and the financial pressures occurring from markets here in the United States, and by the U.S. government," he added.

Several blocks away, across from the U.N. headquarters, 3,000 demonstrators mobilized by a coalition of mostly Jewish groups protested against Ahmadinejad's threats toward Israel and Iran's human rights record.

And in Vienna, the U.N. arms control chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, accused Iran of blocking his efforts to clarify its involvement in experiments and studies consistent with developing a clandestine nuclear weapons program.

Suspicion that Iran is pursuing such weapons took center stage at last fall's General Assembly debate and put Ahmadinejad on the spot. This year, with a divided U.N. Security Council reluctant to tighten sanctions against Iran, he appeared relaxed and confident.

"We do not believe that the U.S. policy perspective, looking at the rest of the world as a field of confrontation, will give good results," he said.

The Iranian leader wore a gray windbreaker over a light brown shirt and a Pierre Cardin belt in his gray plaid slacks. He smiled almost incessantly, even when talking about his nemesis, Bush, whose policies, he said, "have harmed people all around the world."

He declined to say whether he preferred to confront a Republican administration led by John McCain, who opposes negotiating with Iran, or a Democratic one headed by Barack Obama. Obama says he would talk to Ahmadinejad's government under certain conditions.

Nor did he, despite prodding in the interview, suggest a fresh approach by Iran to Bush's successor.

"Any [U.S.] government that comes to power must change previous policy approaches," he said, adding that he was ready to speak with either of the candidates while he's in New York this week. "We're interested in having friendly relations."

boudreaux@latimes.com