News

As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives in New York for the UN General Assembly, once again he joins the battle for public opinion, and once again he may have won the first skirmish.

As usual, he is making the round of American TV studios, appearing on the Charlie Rose show on PBS, and Larry King Live on CNN. Already, he has been interviewed by Christiane Amanpour on ABC News.

While some of the Western media denounce him as crazy, Mr Ahmadinejad has shown himself just as able at influencing opinion and swaying the media as any Western leader.

True, he is known for what are seen in the West as a number of high-profile "gaffes", most notably his claim, on a previous trip to New York, that "we don't have gays, like you do".

But he has also succeeded in moving the agenda onto a ground of his own choosing, and few, if any, of the Western journalists who have interviewed him have scored many points off him.

One of his favourite techniques is to take his apparent weakness, and use it to attack his opponents.