The comment was made only in passing in one of the many interviews he gave while in New York last week.
Only the Christian Science Monitor was seen to report the brief comment.
Ahmadi-nejad said, “I don’t want to say this was the right action to take, but I want to put ourselves in their shows.” It was not clear whose shoes he was talking about.
Ahmadi-nejad was a student leader at his university who attended the first planning session for the embassy seizure. Other student leaders have reported he opposed invading the American embassy at the time and was not invited to any later planning sessions.
During his many interviews in New York, he was his usual fiery self, shooting zingers and one-liners.
But in his UN speech, he appeared to accept the call of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to mind his words. The speech was far milder than his previous presentations to the UN. In fact, there were complaints that his speech was boring, not a normal criticism aimed at Ahmadi-nejad.
The first part of his speech was the kind of mini-sermon that he likes to give on his provincial visits around Iran. Much of it would have been incomprehensible to non-Shias.
Then he went into an attack on US leadership of the world, saying such things as “poverty is on the rise,” although it has actually fallen substantially in the last half-century. He insisted that “poverty is imposed” on other nations by the United States.
He also complained that under American influence, “Woman’s sublime role and personality, as a heavenly being, a manifestation of divine image and beauty, and the main pillar of every society, has been damaged and abused by the powerful and the wealthy.”
His solution was a new world order that he said should be based on seven points, including:
• “Man is recognized as God’s supreme creature;”
• “It is founded upon trust and kindness;”
• “Everybody is equal before the law;” and
• “Authority is a sacred gift from the people to their rulers, not a chance to amass power and wealth.”
He appeared to draw the most media coverage in the United States with his comments on gays. In one interview, he said, “Support for homosexuality is only engrained in the thoughts of hard-core capitalists and those who support the growth of capital only, not human values.” He insisted that people are made into homosexuals and are not born that way.
He blamed the hostile relations between Iran and the United States exclusively on the United States. He said, “One would expect Americans, after the victory of the revolution, that, if they did not support it, they should not stand against it either. Not only did the Americans not recognize the revolution, but they also plotted against it, which made the Iranian people think that conspiracies were being planned and managed at the American embassy.”
Actually, Bruce Langin, the US charge d’affaires in Tehran after the revolution, has said his marching orders from President Jimmy Carter were to emphasize to every Iranian official he dealt with that the Administration accepted the revolution as a reality and was prepared to deal with the new government as the legitimate government.