Share this story!            

Ahmadinejad rails against Zionists, US ‘bullying’ at UN

* Iranian president says ‘deceitful’ Zionists manipulating Americans, Europeans
* Says ‘American empire near end’ g Israel slams Iran’s UNSC bid

UNITED NATIONS: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad railed against “Zionist murderers” in a speech to the United Nations on Tuesday and vowed to resist American bullying and defend Iran’s right to nuclear power.

After a long discourse on God, justice and morality, Ahmadinejad said a small number of “deceitful” Zionists were manipulating Americans and Europeans. He said there was growing resistance in the world to the aggression of “bullying powers,” a phrase he used repeatedly to refer to the United States and its allies. “The Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse, and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters,” he said, referring to Israel.

Near end: “American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road, and its next rulers must limit their interference to their own borders,” Ahmadinejad said. He dwelled on what he described as Zionist control over international “financial and monetary centres.” The comments were swiftly denounced as anti-Semitic by the Anti-Defamation League, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, among others.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said the comments echoed an anti-Semitic tract - now considered fraudulent - that was published in the early 1900s and described a Jewish and Masonic plot to take over the world. “This is the first time in the history of the United Nations that the head of a state is appearing openly and publicly with the ugly and dark accusations of the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’” Peres told reporters.

He reiterated Israel’s position that Iran has become a “centre of terror” with its support for Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Ahmadinejad said Iran’s nuclear programme was entirely peaceful and his country was cooperating fully with the UN atomic watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA said earlier this month that Iran was not cooperating enough with its inspectors. “A few bullying powers have sought to put hurdles in the way of the peaceful nuclear activities of the Iranian nation by exerting political and economic pressures against Iran, and also through threatening and pressuring the IAEA,” Ahmadinejad said.

He told a news conference the IAEA was under pressure from Washington, which had made allegations against Iran that were “so superficial and funny” that it was clear they were forged. “The forgery was so poorly done that any elementary school kid would be able to figure it out.”

“The great Iranian people ... will resist the bullying, and has defended and will defend its rights,” Ahmadinejad said in his speech. “The Iranian nation is for dialogue. But it has not accepted and will not accept illegal demands.” Asked about the prospect of military action by Israel against Iran’s nuclear installations, Ahmadinejad cast doubt on Israel’s military power and said Iran was big and strong. “Iran has different ways of defending its interests and it is so powerful, or has power enough, that it will be able to stop any activities before guns are pointed at us,” he said.

UNSC bid: Responding to Iran’s bid for one of the 10 non-permanent member seats on the UN Security Council which becomes vacant in January, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Wednesday that giving Iran a seat on the UN Security Council would be “absurd” given the insecurity its policies have caused. “It is absurd that a state unparalleled in threatening the security of its neighbours and calling for the destruction of another state should be a member of a body whose goal is to further global security,” Livni said. agencies

Home | Foreign

Share this story!