Ahmadinejad invites Bush to speak in Tehran

After being welcomed in New York with protests and scolding from president of Columbia University, Iranian leader says if US president plans to travel to Islamic republic, he is welcome to make speech at Iranian university
Associated Press

After being welcomed in New York with protests and a scolding from the president of Columbia University, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday extended an invitation to US President George W. Bush.

Ahmadinejad told Iranian state television that if Bush planned to travel to Iran, he was welcome to make a speech at an Iranian university.

Iranian Leader at Columbia U

Ahmadinejad gets blistering welcome from university president / Associated Press

'Your denial of the Holocaust might fool the illiterate and ignorant,' Columbia president tells Ahmadinejad, who says in response that the Shoah 'has been abused as a justification for Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians'

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At Columbia Monday, university president Lee Bollinger introduced Ahmadinejad as a leader who exhibits "all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator."

That introduction has prompted complaints in Iran and elsewhere that Ahmadinejad had been blindsided.

While the Iranian president himself complained of the "unfriendly treatment" and "many insults," he otherwise appeared to take the comments in stride.

But back home, Iranians are saying Bollinger's words added to their image of the US as a bully.