World / Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Obama Calls Ahmadinejad's Speech 'Offensive' Especially because he made it so close to Ground Zero By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff Posted Sep 24, 2010 2:25 PM CDT Copied Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, addresses the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters Thursday, Sept. 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Barack Obama was definitely not a fan of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s UN speech, in which he called for an inquiry into 9/11 conspiracy theories. “It was offensive. It was hateful,” Obama told the BBC today. “Especially for him to make the statement here in Manhattan, just a little north of Ground Zero … was inexcusable.” Ahmadinejad had argued that the US government could have “orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy, and its grips on the Middle East, in order to save the Zionist regime” in Israel. Obama said the horrible statement stood “in contrast to the response of the Iranian people when 9/11 happened. There were candlelight vigils and I think a natural sense of shared humanity. … It just shows once again the difference between” the Iranian regime and its people. More on Ahmadinejad here. (More Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stories.) Report an error