Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday he was ready for face-to-face talks
with his U.S.
counterpart Barack Obama on "global issues."
"We are hopefully coming for the U.N. assembly," Ahmadinejad said in
an address to expatriate Iranians, which was broadcast live on state
television.
"We are ready to sit down with Mr Obama face-to-face and put the global
issues on the table, man-to-man, freely, and in front of the media and see
whose solutions are better. We think this is a better approach."
Ahmadinejad is expected to travel to New
York for the United Nations General Assembly meeting
next month.
The Iranian president has previously challenged Obama to hold a public debate
with him on issues concerning the international community.
He has on various occasions blamed the U.S. for "global
disorders," particularly the financial crisis in the world economy.
His call comes after a series of punitive sanctions imposed on Iran
by the U.N. Security Council, the U.S.
and the European Union over Iran's
controversial nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad criticized Obama for missing what he said were "historic opportunities"
to repair relations with Iran,
with whom the U.S.
has had no direct diplomatic ties for more than 30 years.
"He [Obama] said he wants to make changes and we welcomed (that). Unfortunately,
he did not correctly exploit historic opportunities," the hardliner said,
adding that Obama "overly values Zionists."
Obama had in March 2009 extended a hand of diplomacy towards Iran
in an attempt to break the deadlock between the two countries, but since then
the animosity between the two nations has steadily worsened.
Ahmadinejad said he was informed that Obama "is under a lot of
pressure."
"Somebody should answer questions whether the U.S.
government is dominated by the Zionists or the Zionist regime is controlled by
the U.S.
government."
Israel, like the U.S., hasn't ruled out a military strike against
Iran
to halt its nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad, under whose presidency Iran
has been slapped with four sets of U.N. sanctions, has remained steadfast in
pursuing a sensitive uranium enrichment program, which Washington
and other world powers want Iran
to abandon.
Iran
says it isn't enriching uranium for any military aims.
Israel is the sole if
undeclared nuclear weapons power in the Middle East.