Ahmadinejad defiant against pro-Israel lobby ahead of UN visit

Tehran - The pro-Israel lobby in the United States would not be able to distort the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to New York, a presidential spokesman said Monday. Ahmadinejad planned to travel to the US Tuesday to attend the annual United Nations General Assembly and give a speech Wednesday.

In the run-up to the visit, the Iranian president caused controversy by once again questioning the massacre of Jews during World War II and calling the Holocaust a "fairy tale" used as pretext to establish the Israeli state.

His remarks led to renewed condemnation from Israel and the West.

Presidential spokesman Mohammad-Jafar Mohammadzadeh told official news agency IRNA that the pro-Israel lobby would therefore try to distort Ahmadinejad's New York visit.

"The Zionist lobby would do anything to prevent our president from disclosing the Iranian standpoint and distort the message of global justice, but the Zionists will once again fail," the spokesman said.

"As the president himself said, we are proud that professional killers are our opponents," Mohammadzadeh added.

Ahmadinejad said Friday that the Holocaust was used as "a pretext for crimes against humanity" and blamed the West of having turned the issue into a taboo.

"Why do they not allow scholars to open this black box and evaluate the whole truth about this claim?" Ahmadinejad said.

Iran does not recognize Israel and considers its government as the main root of all problems in the Middle East.

The presidential spokesman said Ahmadinejad will deliver "the message of peace and friendship" at the UN General Assembly and meet several heads of states.