Iran has said that the turmoil on Wall Street is rooted partly in US military intervention abroad and hoped that the next American administration would retreat from President George Bush's "logic of force".
"We do not believe that the US policy perspective, looking at the rest of the world as a field of confrontation, will give good results," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.
"Problems do not arise suddenly," he said. "The US government has made a series of mistakes in the past few decades. First, the imposition on the US economy of heavy military engagement and involvement around the world... the war in Iraq, for example. . . . These are heavy costs, he added in an interview to Los Angeles Times.
"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 US government," he said.
He declined to say whether he preferred to confront a Republican administration led by John McCain, who opposes negotiating with Iran, or a Democratic one headed by Barack Obama.Obama says he would talk to Iran under certain conditions. Nor did he suggest a fresh approach by Iran to Bush's successor.
Israel was doomed like "an airplane that has lost its engine and that Western intelligence documents questioning peaceful purpose of Iran's nuclear programme are crude forgeries, Ahmadinejad said.
"Any (US) government that comes to power must change previous policy approaches," he said, adding that he was ready to speak with either of the candidates while in New York this week. "We're interested in having friendly relations."
