Ahmadinejad blames U.S. military interventions for market collapse met collapse

Iran’s president blamed U.S. military interventions around the world in part for the collapse of global financial markets ahead of his speech Tuesday to the U.N. General Assembly.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said the campaign against his country’s nuclear program was solely due to members of the Bush administration “and a couple of their European friends.”

“The U.S. government has made a series of mistakes in the past few decades,” Ahmadinejad said an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “The imposition on the U.S. economy of the years of heavy military engagement and involvement around the world ... the war in Iraq, for example. These are heavy costs imposed on the U.S. economy.

“The world economy can no longer tolerate the budgetary deficit and the financial pressures occurring from markets here in the United States, and by the U.S. government,” he added.