AJC Denounces Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s Abuse of UN Podium

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Sep 23, 2010, 08:59 ET

NEW YORK, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC denounced Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for abusing the UN General Assembly podium to level baseless and inflammatory charges against the United States over the Al Qaeda atrocities of September 11, 2001.

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“President Ahmadinejad today outdid his usual odious hyperbole,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris. “Before the entire world, a man whose title is ‘president’ only because he stole an election and brutalized his people, confirmed that he is a leading 9/11 conspiracy nut. Astonishingly, he did so from the UN podium, located not far from the site of the Islamist terror attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center twin towers, killing nearly 3,000, nine years ago.”

Ahmadinejad called for a “UN independent fact-finding group for the event of 11 September” that would take as its starting point his outlandish claim that the U.S. government orchestrated the attack.

“Ahmadinejad relishes denying historical truth, whether it is the Holocaust, his perennial favorite target, or now the September 11 terrorist attacks upon the United States,” said Harris. “Today, he not only defiled the memory of those lost on 9/11, but directly insulted their families, as well as every New Yorker. Let us recall that our great city has unfortunately been obliged to host Ahmadinejad and his cohorts all week.”

In addition to his rants about the United States, Ahmadinejad delivered his standard verbal assault on Israel, a UN member state he describes as “the Zionist regime,” and whose violent elimination he loudly advocates.

Ahmadinejad spoke just hours after President Obama appealed to world leaders attending the UN session to recognize Israel’s legitimacy and to support the current Israeli-Palestinian talks to achieve a permanent solution to the conflict.

“No wonder President Abbas recently criticized President Ahmadinejad for slamming the talks and interfering in Palestinian affairs,” said Harris. “The Palestinians favored and supported by Iran are Hamas and similar terrorist organizations who call for Israel’s destruction, threaten the Palestinian Authority, and violently oppose any peaceful resolution.”

On the issue of terrorism, Harris continued, today’s speech by Ahmadinejad was sickeningly ironic. “Given that Ahmadinejad’s Iran is the chief state sponsor of Islamist terrorism, notably Hezbollah and Hamas, his announcement at the UN today that Iran will host a conference to study terrorism is about as credible and respectable as his notorious 2006 Holocaust denial conference,” said Harris.

www.ajc.org

SOURCE American Jewish Committee