Iran’s president says backing gays is for ‘capitalists’

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Supporting homosexuality is the stuff of hardline capitalists who do not care about real human values, Iran's president said on Monday.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview on CNN that homosexuality is a "very ugly behaviour" that he said was banned by "all prophets and all religions and all faiths."

In New York to attend the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, Mr Ahmadinejad said that just because some countries support homosexuality that does mean his criticism of it means he is denying people's freedom. He ridiculed politicians and parties who, he said, approve of gays and lesbians just to win "four or five additional votes." More broadly, he said supporting homosexuality had nothing to do with supporting human development.

"This kind of support of homosexuality is only engrained in the thoughts of hard-core capitalists and those who support the growth of capital only, rather than human values," the president said through an interpreter.