Mass walkout at UNGA as Ahmadinejad takes center stage

28 countries including the United States walked out as Ahmadinejad launched into a tirade against the West, US.


Afp September 22, 2011

UNITED NATIONS: The United States led a mass walkout of the UN General Assembly on Thursday when Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched an outspoken attack on Western nations.

A US diplomat who was in the assembly hall to monitor the speech left halfway through, while the 27 European Union nations then followed in a coordinated protest move.

The Iranian leader again cast doubt on the origins of the Holocaust and the September 11, 2001 attacks and criticised the United States for killing Osama bin Laden rather than bringing him to trial.

Ahmadinejad has in the past drawn international condemnation for his use of major speeches to call for the destruction of Israel and indicate that the US government may have been involved in 9/11.

Ahmadinejad told the UN summit that the United States and its allies use the Western media to "threaten anyone who questions the Holocaust and the September 11 event with sanctions and military action."

The Iranian leader said he had been threatened by the US government after he last year alleged American government involvement in the attacks and called for an independent investigation.

Moving to the US operation to kill bin Laden, Ahmadinejad said "would it not have been reasonable to bring to justice and openly bring to trial the main perpetrator of the incident in order to identify the elements behind the safe space provided for the invading aircraft to attack the twin World Trade Center towers?"

In a general blast at the West, Ahmadinejad said "hypocrisy and deceit are allowed in order to secure their interests and imperialistic goal."

"Drug trafficking and killing of innocent human beings are also allowed in pursuit of such diabolic goals," he added.

"They weaken countries through military intervention and destroy their infrastructures, in order to plunder their resources by making them all the more dependent."

"Ahmadinejad had a chance to address his own people's aspirations for freedom and dignity, but instead he again turned to abhorrent anti-Semitic slurs and despicable conspiracy theories," said US mission spokesman Mark Kornblau.

A French spokesman called Ahmadinejad's attacks "unacceptable," while the German delegation said it had left the assembly because of the "crude, anti-American, anti-Israeli and anti-West tirade by the Iranian president."

COMMENTS (11)

Adnan | 12 years ago | Reply

Please see the following link. Now is this the diplomacy or biased behavior or unjust or favorism or punish to freedom of expression in your words.

When Muslim students walk out from an address of Israeli Ambassador (just an Ambassador) and they are convicted of being mean. But when Ahmadinejad starts his address at UNGA and representatives of 26 or 28 countries just walk out of the hall to show up there protest then its freedom of expression in a respectable and polite way.

What A DIPLOMACY? Hats off to you

http://gawker.com/5843400/muslim-students-convicted-of-being-mean-to-israeli-ambassador

John B | 12 years ago | Reply

@Bangladeshi: Please read the official translation of texts of his speeches rather than listening to Iranian YouTube propaganda.

He had an excellent opportunity to polish his position in the various interviews he gave, but every year he is going south in those interviews. Amidst all protests, Columbia university gave him an academic forum to articulate his position outside of the political settings last year, and he royally screwed up the opportunity.

When Ms Butto and Gen Musharaff gave interviews and speeches they used that opportunity to make case for PAK rather than screaming everyone is conspiring against us.

Diplomacy is personal relations and chemistry. That is why Nehru was well received in UN than Mr. Bhutto, to give the sub continent context of the era. Nehru was scholarly, articulative, and his speeches created philosophical arguments on conscience while Mr.Bhutto was confrontational even though he was intelligent and a scholar on world politics.

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