Ahmadinejad: 'An ugly thing' for U.S. to spend more on military than unemployed

In a CNN interview aired Sunday morning, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized American military involvement in the Middle East.

On Fareed Zakaria GPS, the controversial figurehead for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was puzzled by America's continued focus to plug more defense money overseas while the country's jobless rate remains high.

"The United States is doing a very ugly thing," he said. "They are spending so much money for these military bases, (but) they cannot spend this money for the American unemployed?"

Ahmadinejad added: "They have more than one thousands of billions of dollars for military budget. If they spend this money for the American economy, is it necessary for the people to go to Wall Street? Would there remain any difference or hostility?

WATCH: Video from CNN, which appeared on October 23, 2011.