Ahmadinejad says US "dragged world in mud"

Alarabiya.net

TEHRAN (AFP)

Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a vitriolic tirade against the United States and Israel on Sunday as he cast fresh doubt on the September 11 attacks, state media reported.

"They have such nerve to threaten us and say all options are on the table. May the undertaker take you, your tables... away as you have dragged the world in mud," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in a speech.

"If you don't leave the region, you should know that soon the nations of the region will expel you with a kick in the butt," he said in some of his harshest anti-U.S. comments in recent times

The United States and Israel accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons and have never ruled out a military strike to curb Tehran's atomic drive. Iran maintains its atomic program has peaceful aims.

"We have hundreds of unanswered questions about the September 11 incident to which they should respond, and we will not back down on this," Ahmadinejad said in the speech marking the start of a housing project outside Tehran.

"If they claim 3,000 people were killed on September 11, they (the perpetrators) should be identified and executed.

"We will even help in their arrest provided they present evidence, but will not accept whatever Bush and Obama say," he said referring to former U.S. president George W. Bush and his successor Barack Obama.

"Even the Americans themselves do not accept these claims, let alone other nations."

Last month Ahmadinejad sparked outrage in the United States and around the world when he accused the U.S. government of involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly.

Obama slammed the remarks as "hateful" and "offensive."

Ahmadinejad has already drawn international condemnation by repeatedly casting doubt on the Nazi Holocaust since coming to power in 2005.

On Sunday he branded Iran's arch-foe Israel a "savage dog unleashed in the region."