While delegations from the United States and Israel decided to stay away in a boycott of his speech, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the world stage of the United Nations General Assembly to attack the policies and basic principles of the U.S. and the nations of Europe, saying they “have entrusted themselves to the devil.”
Even though the U.S. delegation was not present, Ahmadinejad clearly enjoyed taking the stage inside the U.S.’s biggest city and poking a finger in America’s eye. He knew that even if they weren’t sitting in the audience, American leaders would hear every word that he said.
Ahmadinejad didn’t say one word about the Iranian nuclear weapons program, the current obsession of Washington and of Israel, which fears that Iran would turn nuclear weapons on its hated rival to the west if it were allowed to develop them. But the volatile Iranian leader talked plenty about the politics of U.S. and Israel, who he called “uncivilized Zionists.”
Ahmadinejad said that letting just five nations—the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France—have veto power in the U.N. Security Council was not acceptable.
“The current abysmal situations of the world are due mainly to the wrong leadership of the world who have entrusted themselves to the devil,” he said, referring to America’s commanding position in world affairs.
He maligned the U.S. presidential election for spending ” hundreds of millions on election campaigns” and not listening to the “will and views of the masses.”
“In the United States and in Europe their voices are not heard even if they constitute 99 percent of the societies,” he said. “Human and ethical values are sacrificed in order to win worlds.”
Ahmadinejad went after capitalism, calling it a “failed practice…bogged down in a self made quagmire and has unleashed a deadlock and has not been able to come up with any solution to the economic and social problems of the world.”
The Iranian leader also criticized the United States for “throwing” Osama bin Laden “into the sea without military trial,” referring to the U.S. disposal of bin Laden’s body off of a U.S. warship following Muslim prayers.
Erin Pelton, a spokesman for United States U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, explained in a statement why the U.S. delegation wasn’t attending the speech.
“Over the past couple of days, we’ve seen Mr. Ahmadinejad once again use his trip to the U.N. not to address the legitimate aspirations of the Iranian people but to instead spout paranoid theories and repulsive slurs against Israel,” Pelton said. “It’s particularly unfortunate that Mr. Ahmadinejad will have the platform of the U.N. General Assembly on Yom Kippur, which is why the United States has decided not to attend.”
A bipartisan group of 14 U.S. House members had tried to stop Ahmadinejad’s U.N. speech, pushing a resolution on Monday demanding that President Obama pressure the United Nations to move or cancel his speech, saying it was “offensive” and “insensitive” to allow the “Anti-Semitic” leader speak on Yom Kippur.
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