Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday said the U.S. government's official version of the Sept. 11 attacks a "big lie" upon which the invasion of Afghanistan and the so-called war on terror were based.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad takes part in the demonstration to mark the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Tehran February 11, 2010. [Xinhua/Reuters File Photo]

The AP reported that Ahmadinejad made the comments during an address to Intelligence Ministry staff.

"September 11 was a big lie and a pretext for the war on terror and a prelude to invading Afghanistan," Ahmadinejad said. He called the attacks a "complicated intelligence scenario and act."

This was not the first time that Ahmadinejad questioned the official U.S. version of the Sept. 11 attacks.

In 2007, he said during a lecture in New York that the causes and conditions that led to the attacks, as well as who orchestrated them, still need to be examined. He also questioned the Sept. 11 death toll of around 3,000.