UPDATE: The text of Ahmadinejad’s address to the UN, in which he claimed that “Zionists…have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries,” can be read here.

Perched in a suite at New York’s Grand Hyatt Hotel, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in town for the UN General Assembly, has been making nice with the press.

As is usual when he meets with western journalists, he’s far more slippery than when he is hectoring his own people. In May, addressing a crowd in the city of Gorgan, there was little room for doubt concerning his intentions towards Israel: “They should know that regional nations hate this fake and criminal regime and if the smallest and briefest chance is given to regional nations they will destroy it.” But speaking to the LA Times, the newspaper of a city which has a massive Iranian emigre population, he sounded much more reasonable: “We’re calling for free referendums for the Palestinian nation to determine their own government. This will be reflected in a proposal which we will soon submit to the U.N. secretary-general.”

Yet there is no need to ask the real Ahmadinejad to stand up. The Gorgan speech - a clear exhortation to attack and destroy Israel - represents his true face. His remarks in New York do not represent a new-found moderation, but rather a ham-fisted attempt to sound level-headed in order to maximize western doubt over a confrontation with his regime.

• Destroying Israel

Take his comments about a referendum. On the surface, they would appear to contradict his call to destroy Israel. On the surface, the referendum would dismantle Israel from within, rather than attack it from without. But Ahmadinejad knows that the referendum could only take place if an attack on Israel was successful. And if that nightmare scenario was realized, a referendum would be the last item on the agenda of the theocrats who would take power.

• The Holocaust

“If we agree and accept that certain events had occurred during World War II, well, where did they indeed happen? ” he asked the LA Times rhetorically. “In Germany, in Poland and in Great Britain. Now, what does this exactly have to do with Palestine? Why is it that the Palestinian people should pay for it?”

Nothing new there, then. Holocaust denial packaged for western consumption.

• Human rights

“These are what the Zionists and the U.S. government say,” he responded to questions about Iran’s absymal human rights record. “They are not true; they do not happen. In Iran, freedom is absolute, and it is the law that rules.”

This is the time-honored tyrant’s response. Only the most useful of idiots would not see right through it.

The most important issue when it comes to Iran is, of course, its nuclear program. And that’s why it was the questions - from the LA Times reporters as well as from NPR - which were found wanting, rather than the answers. Ahmadinejad was not pressed on Iran’s violations of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, while the IAEA’s latest report wasn’t even mentioned.

As the New York Times said in an editorial today, “Tehran’s scientists are getting ever closer to mastering the skills that are the hardest part of building a nuclear weapon. This is not a problem that can be shunted off to the next president.” Let’s be clear: the doubts about WMD that existed in the Iraqi case are absent in when it comes to Iran. Even if there is disagreement about how the international community should respond, there is no disagreement about what the Iranians are themselves doing at Natanz and at their other centers.

Herein lies the paradox. Ahmadinejad comes to New York to project an image of statesmanlike responsibility. He ends up projecting an image of thuggish irresponsibility, thus helping to cement the consensus against him. Ahmadinejad may be looking to Kim Jong Il as a model negotiator , but he may end up sharing a similar fate to Saddam Hussein - with the real, terrible cost borne by the people of Iran.