Ahmadinejad meets Farrakhan, other religious leaders

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with Nation of Islam leader the Rev. Louis Farrakhan and other religious leaders.

The meeting on Tuesday in New York City was reported in an English translation of the Iranian president’s Web page, according to the Daily Caller, an online news site.

According to Ahmadinejad’s web page, the night before his address to the UN General Assembly, Farrakhan and seven other leaders of “Abrahamic religions” listened to the Iranian president’s desires for a new world order, the major theme of the Iranian’s UN speech, the website reported.

None of the other participants at the meeting were identified.

Ahmadinejad reportedly made his case for his country’s nuclear program. Iran, he said, has a right to develop clean energy. He also stressed that “US animosity” against his country stemmed from Washington’s desire to control Middle East energy resources.

“He further pointed to the western countries contradictory approach regarding their opposition to the atomic bombs and said if they are true with their claims why do they not destroy their own nuclear bombs first?” Ahmadinejad’s web page said.

The New York Post also reported that Ahmadinejad met at the Warwick Hotel, where he was staying, with Farrakhan and members of the New Back Panther Party.

“This is part of reaching out to the fringe that supports him,” Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, told JTA.