Iran nuclear issue 'closed', Ahmadinajad tells UN

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad wrapped up his visit to the United States Wednesday after receiving a bashing at a top U.S. university and using his platform at the United Nations to say the nuclear program issue was "closed".

Ahmedinajad's visit and notably his appearance at Colombia university had sparked outrage among U.S. politicians and the Jewish community over his outspoken comments on Israel and downplaying the Holocaust.

Ahmadinajad used his address to world leaders gathered for the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday to say Iran considered the controversy over its nuclear program "closed" and should be handled "within the legal framework" and under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Ahmadinejad listened impassively as French President Nicolas Sarkozy said it would be unacceptable for the Islamic republic to acquire nuclear weapons.

"Iran has the right to nuclear energy," Sarkozy said. "But allowing Iran to have nuclear weapons would mean an unacceptable risk for regional and world stability."

In a wide-ranging speech, Ahmadinejad accused Washington of arrogance and human rights abuses, speaking at the same spot where U.S. President George W. Bush had earlier spoken of the primacy of human rights and freedom.

In his 40-minute speech, the Iranian leader went on to accuse Washington of human rights abuses in its "war on terror," with allusions to CIA programs of rendition and detention in camps such as Guantanamo Bay.

"Unfortunately human rights are being extensively violated by certain powers, especially by those who pretend to be their exclusive advocates," Ahmadinejad said, without mentioning the United States by name.

Ahmadinejad used his speeches to the National Press Club in Washington and Columbia University on Monday to say Iran had no need for nuclear weapons and to downplay talk that Iran and the United States are on the path to war.

Ahmedinajad at Columbia

Despite being derided as a "petty and cruel dictator" and suffering the rare indignity of a public dressing down while appearing at Columbia University, the Iranian leader seemed to take it all in his stride.

Booed and strongly challenged on his views on the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad complained of "unfriendly treatment" at the hands of the New York university.

Before he even spoke, Ahmadinajad was forced to sit through 20 minutes of broadsides from university president Lee Bollinger, who had been heavily criticized by Jewish groups and U.S. politicians for inviting the Iranian leader.

"Mr President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," Bollinger told Ahmadinejad, accusing him of brutal crackdowns notably on the country's academics and homosexuals and for stifling dissent.

"Why are you so afraid of Iranian citizens expressing their opinions for change?" he asked, challenging the leader of the Islamic republic to explain his comments downplaying the Holocaust.

"When you come to a place like this, this makes you quite simply ridiculous. You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated," he said.

Ahmadinajad accused Bollinger of a "wave of insults and allegations" while largely avoiding any direct answers to Bollinger's challenges.

After initially seeming a little flustered, Ahmadinejad grew more relaxed as he got into his stride to accuse the United States of trying to block Iran's legitimate desire to achieve scientific progress in its atomic program.

Smiling and occasionally laughing as he talked of Iran's culture and outlook on the world, Ahmadinajad drew the biggest jeers from students for stating that homosexuality did not exist in the Islamic republic.

"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country," he said to a chorus of howls, laughter and boos. "In Iran we don't have this phenomenon, I don't know who told you this."

Ahmadinajad was due to fly to Bolivia on Wednesday and to later visit fellow firebrand and U.S. pariah, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Kuwaiti stance

Meanwhile the Gulf state of Kuwait said on Tuesday that it would not allow its territory to be used for any attack on Iran, the official news agency KUNA reported.

"Kuwait is not a place that harms its neighbors ... and would not allow Kuwaiti land to be used to assault any country," the official KUNA news agency quoted Sheikh Jaber al-Hamad al-Sabah, Kuwait's defense and interior minister as saying.

Kuwait has called on Iran to show full cooperation with the IAEA over its nuclear program. It has said it opposes any military strike against Tehran, and called for a negotiated settlement to the standoff.