NEW YORK — In his outward persona at least, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to this country to lessen hostility toward himself and to defend Iran, not to rabble-rouse and provoke hatred. Whether he succeeded remains an open question.

In an interview Monday — before his appearance at Columbia University — Ahmadinejad presented his country as a reasonable seeker of peace and justice. He denied that it holds any violent intentions against the United States, Israel or any of its immediate neighbors.

“We seek detente,” Ahmadinejad declared. “Every stance and position has been toward peace.”

He also denied all the chief accusations against Iran: that it is providing weapons to kill U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, supporting terrorism or breaking international law by developing nuclear weapons.

As with any world leader, ­Ahmadinejad’s words cannot just be accepted at face value. Leaders are judged by their actions more than their interviews.

Given the Iranian government’s record: taking U.S. hostages in 1979, supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon, hosting demonstrations with chants of “Death to America,” more recent arrests of intellectuals and Ahmadinejad’s own questioning of the Holocaust, he faced a hard task softening his country’s image.

Clearly, however, he was making a bid in the interview to introduce himself as a rational leader, not as the dangerous, hardline radical that he is often perceived to be by many in this country.

The problems in the Middle East, including Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, can be solved through dialogue, goodwill and free elections, Ahmadinejad said. Talks with the United States will be fruitful, he said, if both sides are honest and serious.

He appeared to rule out a first-strike against Israel by Iran, and said he does not really believe that the United States would try to mount a war. He said such talk was just pre-electoral rhetoric and U.S. anger speaking.

There was notably no bashing of the “Great Satan” in the interview, and he was also somewhat muted in his discussion of Israel, although he always referred to it as “the Zionist regime” rather than by its name.

On the nuclear issue, he said the problems between Iran and some Western countries are strictly political, and that most of the world believes that Iran has the legal right to nuclear technology for civilian purposes.

U.S. military officials insist they have evidence that Iran is providing weapons and training to militants in Iraq, particularly armor-piercing ­roadside bombs that have killed hundreds of U.S. troops in recent months. Ahmadinejad said it is not so.

“Why would we want to do that?” he asked. “This would really be inappropriate for us. We are friends with both Iraq and Afghanistan. Insecurity in Iraq and Afghanistan undermines our own national security; it basically goes against what we believe.”