Looks like this year Qaddafi will be the center of attention at the UN. While Ahmadinejad’s speech had some classic “blame West” moments, it just did not match the diatribes found in Qaddafi’s speech (For more on Qaddafi’s speech, check out the Foreign Policy Association’s Human Rights Blog). Ahmadinejad’s speech was more subdued, but that is not to say it was not controversial.
In a 35-minute address, he defended his disputed election victory saying, “They entrusted me once more, by a large majority, with this heavy responsibility.” His speech then went on to spew anti-Semitic rhetoric that really is not worth repeating. The one thing we all can be grateful about is that his speech did not contain any attacks against the Holocaust. It amazes me that these “defenders” of Palestine do not realize that their repugnant attacks hurt the Palestinian cause.
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France led a walkout of a dozen delegations to protest the speech. The AFP reported that delegations from Argentina, Australia, Britain, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand and the United States left the room as Ahmadinejad began to talk about the “Zionist” regime. Israel had already called for a boycott of the speech, and was not present when the Iranian leader began his address. Canada, who had said that it would heed the boycott call, was also not present.
Photo taken from the New York Times.