Iran’s Leader Says Muslims Reject bin Laden’s ‘Islam’, After a videotaped message from bin Laden denouncing the UN and branding Islamic leaders who participated in it as ‘infidels’, Iran’s President Mohammed Khatami, in New York to address the General Assembly, agrees to first interview with a Western newspaper since he assumed office in 1997. Although he faces an uphill battle in creating an anti-terrorist image of Iran (branded a major exporter of terrorism by the US State Dept for its support of Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezbollah), he held up his country as evidence that an ‘Islamic republic’ model can a role model and condemned the portrayal of Islam as a religion of anti-Western hatred. In a significant concession, he said Iran would respect the wishes of the Palestinian people with respect to the recognition of Israel. NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]