(CNN) -- Iran wants "peace and friendship for all," the country's president said Wednesday while again denying Western assertions his nation is pursuing nuclear weapons and trying to destabilize Iraq.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at the Natanz nuclear facility in April.

But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a hard line against Israel, calling it "an invader" and saying it "cannot continue its life."
Asked if Iran had launched a proxy war in Iraq -- something the U.S. ambassador and top military commander there both asserted this week -- Ahmadinejad said the United States is merely seeking a scapegoat for its failing campaign in Iraq.
"Forces have come into Iraq and destroyed the security, and many people are killed," the Iranian president told Britain's ITN during an interview in the garden of the Iranian presidential palace in Tehran.
"And there are some claims that may seem very funny and ridiculous. Those who have lots of weaponry and warfare and thousands of soldiers -- if they are defeated, they blame others. There is no way to escape for peace."
Iranians do not believe in war and consider it a "last resort," he said.

Memorializing 9/11 is more vital than ever, as the emotion and sense of purpose that swept over this country in 2001 dissipate. But PJM’s David Rusin writes that remembering the events in sadness is not enough. We must also remain angry.
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