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Protests Outside, Walkouts Inside: Ahmadinejad At The U.N.
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 24, 2009
Modified Sep 24, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 24, 2009
Modified Sep 24, 2009
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Yesterday, Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took to the United Nations General Assembly stage—and got the U.S., French, British, Canadian and other delegations to walk out when he referred to Israel in his speech: "It is no longer acceptable that a small minority would dominate the politics, economy and culture of major parts of the world by its complicated networks, and establish a new form of slavery, and harm the reputation of other nations, even European nations and the US, to attain its racist ambitions."
Israel, naturally, wasn't present either, but the NY Times still characterized the speech as "less pointedly confrontational than his previous statements," noting that Ahmadinejad also said, "Our nation is prepared to warmly shake all those hands which are honestly extended to us. We welcome real and human exchanges and stand ready to actively engage in fundamental global reforms." He also criticized capitalism, "It is no longer possible to inject thousands of billions of dollars of unreal wealth into the world economy simply by printing worthless paper." Here's his speech:
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Outside the U.N., hundreds of protesters gathered to criticize Ahmadinejad, still upset about the Iranian elections. One protester told the Daily News, "He is not our voice. He is not our representative. We want him out of the UN." The Times also reports that world powers, including the U.S., China and Russia, said they "would give Iran a chance to begin negotiating seriously over its nuclear program at a meeting on Oct. 1, or face consequences — harsher sanctions."
Tagged
general assembly
iran
Iranian elections
mahmoud ahmadinejad
protests
speech
united nations
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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