That about sums it up. Ahmadinejad’s spectacle at the UN has become something of a tradition by now. If the UN sold popcorn at this gathering, this speech would outsell anyone else’s. Once again, he does not disappoint where antisemitism and conspiracy paranoia are concerned, with an extra touch of megalomania. “Walkout at U.N. as Ahmadinejad speaks,” from CNN, September 22:
United Nations (CNN) — Delegations from the United States and several European nations walked out of the U.N. General Assembly Thursday during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech, in which he repeatedly condemned the United States and said some countries use the Holocaust as an “excuse to pay ransom… to Zionists.”
Delegates from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom were among those who walked out. Delegations from Canada and Israel were not present from the beginning.
In his remarks, Ahmadinejad called the September 11, 2001, attacks “mysterious” and said they were a pretext for a U.S.-led war against Afghanistan and Iraq.
He said the United States killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden instead of assigning a fact-finding team to investigate “hidden elements involved in September 11.”
He also placed blame on the United States for numerous global problems including the financial crisis, criticizing it for dominating the world’s “policy-making establishments,” overspending on the military, and “printing trillions of dollars” that triggered inflation, according to an English translation of his speech provided by Iran’s U.N. mission.
Ahmadinejad said the U.S. government views Zionism as “sacred,” and that “European countries still use the Holocaust after six decades as the excuse to pay (a) fine or ransom to the Zionists.”
After assailing the United States, Ahmadinejad said “the main question is the quest for the root cause of such attitudes. The prime reason should be sought in the beliefs and tendencies of the establishment. An assembly of people in contradiction with the inner human instincts and disposition who also have no faith in God and in the path of the divine prophets, replace their lust for power and materialistic ends with heavenly values. To them, only power and wealth prevail, and every attempt must bring into focus these sinister goals.”
On the eve of the address, the Iranian president declared his country to be “a new model for life to the world.”
He also said that the United States might be willing to “hijack” the Middle East uprisings, according to the Iranian state-run news agency IRNA, but did not further explain his assertion.
Ahmadinejad’s appearance at the United Nations in New York comes a day after two U.S. hikers, held in an Iranian prison for more than two years, were released.
Wednesday evening, Ahmadinejad met with a group of U.S. university students, and then gave an interview to Iranian satellite television.
His office provided translated quotes from both.
The Iranian leader said “that the world is in need of change, and Marxism, liberalism, humanism and the West could not solve man’s problems,” his office said. Ahmadinejad added that “relying on its culture and rich civilization,” Iran is “the only nation” that “can offer a new model for life to the world.”
He told the students “that the U.S. may be willing to hijack the regional uprisings but a stormy movement is under way,” IRNA reported.
“Elsewhere in his speech, he said that the U.N. was set up with the objective of preventing bullying in the world, but this did not happen,” IRNA reported….
Indeed. The OIC has made a booming business of it.