New York:
US President Barack Obama responded on Friday to comments by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggesting that the US itself was behind the September 11th attacks.
Ahmadinejad's remarks during a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday afternoon prompted a walkout by US diplomats.
Delegations from all 27 European Union nations followed the Americans out along with representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Costa Rica, an EU diplomat said.
Obama responded to Ahmadinejad in a BBC Persian service interview saying that "it was offensive. It was hateful."
"And particularly for him to make the statement here in Manhattan, just a little north of Ground Zero, where families lost their loved ones, people of all faiths, all ethnicities who see this as the seminal tragedy of this generation, for him to make a statement like that was inexcusable," Obama said.
Obama said Ahmadinejad's remarks would make the American people even more wary about dealing with his government.
However, the Iranian president defended his remarks from a day earlier at the UN General Assembly and suggested that a fact-finding panel be created by the UN to look into who was behind them.
Ahmadinejad routinely makes incendiary remarks, which the West claims are a diversion from heavy international pressure on
Tehran to end uranium enrichment and prove that it is not trying to build a nuclear weapon.
Obama also said that Iran could choose a different path.
"They can make another choice, and we would welcome them making another choice, which would be to act responsibly, they would then be able to have their rights for peaceful nuclear programme, under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and that would remove the sanctions and would allow them to fully enter the international community in a way that would tremendously benefit the Iranian people," he said.
Iran insists it is enriching uranium only to fuel nuclear reactors to generate electricity.
Iran is under four sets of UN Security Council sanctions as punishment for its failure to make its nuclear ambitions transparent.
Ahmadinejad's remarks during a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday afternoon prompted a walkout by US diplomats.
Delegations from all 27 European Union nations followed the Americans out along with representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Costa Rica, an EU diplomat said.
Obama responded to Ahmadinejad in a BBC Persian service interview saying that "it was offensive. It was hateful."
"And particularly for him to make the statement here in Manhattan, just a little north of Ground Zero, where families lost their loved ones, people of all faiths, all ethnicities who see this as the seminal tragedy of this generation, for him to make a statement like that was inexcusable," Obama said.
Obama said Ahmadinejad's remarks would make the American people even more wary about dealing with his government.
However, the Iranian president defended his remarks from a day earlier at the UN General Assembly and suggested that a fact-finding panel be created by the UN to look into who was behind them.
Ahmadinejad routinely makes incendiary remarks, which the West claims are a diversion from heavy international pressure on
Tehran to end uranium enrichment and prove that it is not trying to build a nuclear weapon.
Obama also said that Iran could choose a different path.
"They can make another choice, and we would welcome them making another choice, which would be to act responsibly, they would then be able to have their rights for peaceful nuclear programme, under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and that would remove the sanctions and would allow them to fully enter the international community in a way that would tremendously benefit the Iranian people," he said.
Iran insists it is enriching uranium only to fuel nuclear reactors to generate electricity.
Iran is under four sets of UN Security Council sanctions as punishment for its failure to make its nuclear ambitions transparent.
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