Todd Heisler/The New York Times President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted the downfall of the current economic system, championed the cause of Palestinians and called for a return to monotheistic morality during his address to the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday evening. However, the 35-minute speech was less pointedly confrontational than his previous statements before the body.
“Our nation is prepared to warmly shake all those hands which are honestly extended to us,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said, according to an English interpretation, proclaiming his country’s “commitment to participate in the process of building durable peace and security” around the world.
With nuclear talks between the United States and Iran scheduled for next month, Mr. Ahmadinejad called for the “elimination of all nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons to pave the way for all nations to have access to advanced and peaceful technology.”
His speech came hours after President Obama, in his address, said:
[I]f the governments of Iran and North Korea choose to ignore international standards; if they put the pursuit of nuclear weapons ahead of regional stability and the security and opportunity of their own people; if they are oblivious to the dangers of escalating nuclear arms races in both East Asia and the Middle East — then they must be held accountable.
Mr. Ahmadinejad had his own harsh words for both the United States and Israel, charging that the invasion of Afghanistan has failed to eliminate, and even exacerbated, problems with terrorism and drug trafficking. He pointed to America’s failure to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba and alleged that secret prisons remain open in Europe.
He also said the United States was aiding Israel in “racist ambitions.”
Mr. Ahmadinejad called Israel’s attack on Gaza in November “barbaric” and said the economic blockade of Palestinians amounts to “genocide.” The critique led delegations from Argentina, Australia, Britain, Costa Rica, Denmark, France Germany, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand and the United States to leave the room, as the Agence-France Press noted, citing European sources.
But he did not call for the complete destruction of the country, as he has in the past. Instead, he called for “a referendum and free elections in Palestine in order to prepare a conducive environment for all Palestinians, including Muslims, Christians and Jews, to live together in peace and harmony.”
In the wake of highly contested elections in his own country, which prompted widespread protests followed by a government crackdown and charges of abuse, Mr. Ahmadinejad declared Iran “one of the most democratic and progressive governments in the world.”
“Our nation has successfully gone through a glorious and successfully democratic election,” he said. “They entrusted me once more with a large majority with this heavy responsibility.”
Yet much of his speech focused on spiritual and moral elements, with repeated references to the Koran, as well as to the prophets Abraham and Moses.
“The engine of unbridled capitalism, with its unfair system of thought, has reached the end of the road and is unable to move,” Mr. Ahmadinejad told the sparse gathering, as many world leaders and their delegations boycotted the speech in protest.
“Selfishiness and insatiable greed have taken the place of such human concepts as love, sacrifice, dignity and justice. The belief in the one god has been replaced with self-belief.”
