Walk-out over Ahmadinejad UN speech

Sep 24 2010

Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has provoked another storm of controversy by claiming many people believe the American government staged the September 11 attacks in an attempt to assure Israel's survival.

His comments prompted the US delegation to walk out of the UN chamber, where he also blamed the US as the power behind UN Security Council sanctions against Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used as fuel for electricity generation or to build nuclear weapons.

Delegations from all 27 European Union nations followed the Americans out along with representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Costa Rica, an EU diplomat said.

The Iranian leader - who has in the past cast doubt over the US version of the September 11 2001 attacks - also called for an independent fact-finding UN team to be established to probe the attacks. That, he said, would keep the terror assault from turning into what he has called a sacred issue like the Holocaust, where "expressing opinion about it won't be banned".

Mr Ahmadinejad did not explain the logic behind blaming the US for the terror attacks but said there were three theories: One, he said, was that a "powerful and complex terrorist group" penetrated US intelligence and defences, which is advocated "by American statesmen".

Another, he said, was that "some segments within the US government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grip on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime. The majority of the American people as well as other nations and politicians agree with this view".

After Mr Ahmadinejad uttered those words, two American diplomats stood and walked out without listening to the third theory that the attack was the work of "a terrorist group but the American government supported and took advantage of the situation".

Mark Kornblau, spokesman of the US Mission to the world body, issued a statement within moments of the walkout, saying: "Rather than representing the aspirations and goodwill of the Iranian people, Mr Ahmadinejad has yet again chosen to spout vile conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slurs that are as abhorrent and delusional as they are predictable."

Mr Ahmadinejad said the US used the September 11 attacks as a pretext to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, killing hundreds of thousands of people. He argued that the US, instead, should have "designed a logical plan" to punish the perpetrators and not occupy two independent states and shed so much blood.

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will use a speech today to refute Mr Ahmadinejad's claims, by saying: "(Once) again, an issue of grave global concern has been overshadowed by the bizarre, offensive and attention-grabbing pronouncements by President Ahmadinejad from this podium yesterday. His remarks were intended to distract attention from Iran's obligations and to generate media headlines. They deserve to do neither."