http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/09/24/ahmadinejad.us.iran/index.html "I have said that, in fact, on this very trip, currently in New York, that I am ready to speak with the presidential candidates before the press," he told Larry King. "I believe that we've really done whatever we could do in this respect." Asked whether he fears a U.S. attack, Ahmadinejad told King that attacking Iran would be the "worst thing the U.S. government can do ... I think that in the United States, there are enough reasonable people, smart people, who would not allow the U.S. government to make such a big mistake." Withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, meanwhile, would be "the best scenario," Ahmadinejad said. "But I think that it needs a timetable ... the presence of the United States there has not reduced tension and it has not limited terrorism either. In fact, it has increased terrorism." On hostility between the United States and Iran, Ahmadinejad told King: "The hostility has not been from our end. Up to this day, we have always been interested in having friendly relations." Iran, he said later, "throughout history ... has demonstrated that it is a nation that is for peace and friendly with others." And he insisted Iran's nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, despite Western nations' concern to the contrary. "Their concerns about us are not new," he told King of the West. "They've always been concerned. They were the ones who inspired Saddam [Hussein] to attack Iran and get us involved in an eight-year war. The terrorist groups that killed our president, our prime minister, our officials, are now freely asked to live in the Western countries." The nuclear issue, he said, has been politicized and is not a legal struggle at all, noting the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog group, has "not detected any noncompliance or deviation" on the part of Tehran. Ahmadinejad spoke extensively of Iran's support for Palestinians. The Iranian leader previously has made statements suggesting that Israel be politically "wiped off the map," though he insists that can be accomplished without violence. He has questioned the existence of the Holocaust, the genocidal Nazi campaign against European Jews, and warned Europeans that they may pay a heavy price for its support of Israel. He insisted, however, that he and his country wish no harm to Jews. "We have no problems with Jewish people," he said. "There are many Jews who live in Iran today ... but please pay attention to the fact that the Zionists are not Jews. They have no religion ... they just have -- wear masks of religiosity. How can you possibly be religious and occupy the land of other people?" Watch Ahmadinejad say he has no problems with Jews On the Holocaust, he said an impartial group should research whether it happened as has been claimed. "There is a claim that the extent of the calamity was what it was," Ahmadinejad said. "There are people who agree with it. There are people who disagree." And from the UN talk of him. "As long as the aggressors, because of their financial, political and propaganda powers, not only escape punishment, but even claim righteousness, and as long as wars are started and nations are enslaved in order to win votes in elections, not only will the problems of the global community remain unsolved, but they will be increasingly exacerbated," the Iranian leader said. He accused the United States of oppressing Iraqis with six years of occupation, saying Americans were "still seeking to solidify their position in the political geography of the region and to dominate oil resources."