NEW YORK — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he will request leniency for three American hikers who apparently strayed across Iran’s border.
The Iranian leader said the Americans broke the law, and “we’re not happy that this happened.”
“What I can ask is that the judiciary expedites the process and gives it its full attention, and to basically look at the case with maximum leniency,” Ahmadinejad said.
He did not elaborate.
He spoke in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Ahmadinejad told AP he regrets the deaths of protesters in the violence that followed his country’s disputed presidential elections. But he denied that his government had any role in the killings.
Ahmadinejad said those who died were “not at fault.” He said the responsibility lies with Iranian opposition politicians and with “European and American politicians” who he said fueled the violence.
Ahmadinejad said his country is not a threat to the United States as President Barack Obama has said, but “an opportunity.”
He refused to give an explicit opinion of Obama. “Is this a question to test my IQ?” he said in response.
Both leaders are in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly meetings, but U.S. officials are making sure the leaders will not cross paths in any way.
Ahmadinejad said that Obama must make “big changes” in policy toward Afghanistan, Iraq and the Mideast, and that Obama will find a friend in Iran if he does so.
He said he expects open discussion of nuclear issues at a planned meeting with officials from the U.S. and five other powers but made it clear that Iran is not interested in discussing pressure to restrain its nuclear program, which he said is not intended to produce nuclear weapons.
The Oct. 1 meeting with the U.S., China, Russia, Germany, France and Britain is to be the first of its kind since Obama took office.
The Iranian leader said Iran will push for international nuclear disarmament and expanded opportunities for all countries — including his own — to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes.
