Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a controversial appearance at Columbia University, outlining his positions on a variety of social and diplomatic issues. Introducing the Iranian president, Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University, called him a "petty and cruel dictator."
In a tense address, Ahmadinejad defended his right to question the Holocaust, and reasserted Iran's right to what he said was a peaceful nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad also criticized the Bush administration in his address and took questions from the audience, as NPR's Michele Kelemen tells Robert Siegel.
The address came as world leaders are gathering at the United Nations in New York for this year's General Assembly. On and around the campus, thousands of students and protesters demonstrated over whether or not the Iranian president should have been allowed to speak.
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