United Nations Leaders Walk Out on Iranian President
Representatives from approximately 30 countries walked out of a session at the UN when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered a speech describing Israel as "racist". His speech included accusations that migrant American and European Jews helped Palestine create a "cruel and repressive racist regime".
While there is no questioning that UN members do not wish to entertain a session as a platform for spreading racism, the ideas of presenting a nation's views and challenging others' perspectives are ill-served by simply withdrawing representation, and the act lends some credibility to Mr. Ahmadinejad's later remarks calling the boycotters arrogant.
In the middle af all this, U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the UN Alejandro Wolff remained calm and remarked that Mr. Ahmadinejad's speech was "inaccurate". The ambassador's most important point, though, was that the Iranian leader's remarks "did a grave injustice to the Iranian nation and the Iranian people", feeding anti-Iranian sentiments as mentioned before.
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