Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to infuriate the world by refusing to acknowledge that the Holocaust ever happened.
During an interview with CNN, which aired Monday on "Piers Morgan Tonight," the Iranian president said he will not judge Nazi Germany's extermination of the Jews during World War II.
"Whatever event has taken place throughout history, or hasn't taken place, I cannot judge that. Why should I judge that? I say researchers and scholars must be free to conduct research and analysis about any historical event," Ahmadinejad said.
Outlandish and inflammatory statements are the norm for Ahmadinejad, and his latest appearances in the U.S. showed he had no intention of aiming for diplomacy on any issue.
While speaking before a group of editors and news executives in New York on Monday, Ahmadinejad said Israel has no place in the Middle East. Unlike Iran, which has been in existence for thousands of years, the modern state of Israel has only existed for six decades, he said. "They have no roots there in history. They do not even enter the equation for Iran."
The conversation between Ahmadinejad and Morgan also touched on homosexuality ("Homosexuality ceases procreation."), the anti-Islam film "Innocence of Muslims" (Iran condemns "any action that is provocative, offends the religious thoughts and feelings of any people.") and the death of Osama bin Laden ("I would have been happier to see a transparent trial, a formal trial, and find out the root causes of all of the events of the last few years.").
In a speech at the United Nations on Monday, Ahmadinejad accused some members of the Security Council of having "chosen silence with regard to the nuclear warheads of a fake regime, while at the same time they impede scientific progress of other nations."
Many western nations suspect Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapons program. However, Ahmadinejad claims that his country's project to enrich uranium is for peaceful purposes, The Associated Press reported.
Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday. According to Reuters, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with the Iranian president over the weekend, and urged him to avoid "potentially harmful consequences of inflammatory rhetoric."
The U.N. chief also "urged Iran to take the measures necessary to build international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.