Rice says "travesty" if Iranian leader allowed to visit Ground Zero
NEW YORK (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that it would have been a "travesty" if Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was allowed to visit the Ground Zero site of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
New York authorities last week rejected Ahmadinejad's request to tour the site, currently closed to visitors because of construction there, on security grounds.
"I think this is somebody who is the president of a country that is probably the greatest state sponsor of terrorism, someone who is a Holocaust denier, someone who has talked about wiping other countries off the map," Rice told an interview with CNBC television network.
"I think it would have been a travesty," she stressed.
Washington accuses Iran of backing militant groups such as Hezbollah and providing sophisticated weaponry to Shiite militias in Iraq and fueling civil strife there, charges Tehran deny.
Ahmadinejad, who began his third visit to the United States on Sunday to address the UN General Assembly, drew worldwide condemnation for hosting a conference last December, which cast doubt on the existence of the Holocaust and has himself referred to it as a myth.
He has also repeatedly called for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map.
Iran also vehemently denies Western allegations it is seeking an atomic weapon.
