Ahmadinejad Describes Obama as ‘Pawn’ who Cannot Save Israel

President Barack Obama is a "pawn" who cannot save Israel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday, in a speech broadcast live on state television.

"You are a pawn who has been given a mission to save American and the Zionist regime but of course you won't be able to do it," Ahmadinejad said, addressing the U.S. president.

"With the resistance of the Iranian people this person who came to power through deceit (Obama) will leave the political arena with more degradation than the one before him," Ahmadinejad said, referring to former U.S. president George W. Bush.

"For a long time they wanted to create two states in the land of Palestine. One for the Palestinians and one for unlawful occupiers... today they hope that the people of the region will recognize the Zionist regime."

"This satanic plan will fail," said the hardliner Ahmadinejad, who has drawn international condemnation by his vitriolic attacks against the Jewish state and his dismissal of the Holocaust as a "myth."

The Islamic republic does not recognize Israel.

Referring to a landmark speech last week by Obama on the Middle East, Ahmadinejad accused the American leader of trying to "dictate to the peoples of the region what they should do."

Obama "speaks as if the world belonged to him." But "who are you? Who gave you permission to intervene in the affairs of others?" Ahmadinejad asked.

Obama said in the speech last Thursday that the borders of Israel and Palestine "should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states."

The U.S., Iran's arch-foe, has also come out strongly in support of pro-democracy uprisings across the Arab world.