President Ahmadinejad used his address to single out Israel as the “most cruel and racist regime”

UN walkout as Ahmadinejad calls Israel racist

The UN’s second conference on racism descended into farce yesterday when President Ahmadinejad of Iran used his address to single out Israel as the “most cruel and racist regime”.

Dozens of angry European diplomats, including the British delegation, stormed out as Mr Ahmadinejad used a rambling speech in Geneva to condemn the US and Europe for establishing Israel after the Second World War.

He said: “Following World War II, they resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering.

“They sent migrants from Europe, the United States and other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in the occupied Palestine. In fact, in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive racist regime in Palestine.”

The Iranian President was the only head of state to attend the anti-racism conference, to which most countries did not even send ministers, and his appearance there had all the hallmarks of an election stump speech.

In his 30-minute address, punctuated by walkouts, applause and the ejection of three protesters dressed as circus clowns, Mr Ahmadinejad condemned Israel as a racist state masquerading as a religious one. “The word Zionism personifies racism that falsely resorts to religion and abuses religious sentiments to hide their hatred,” he thundered.

He went on to suggest that the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was also part of a Zionist plot. “Wasn’t the military action against Iraq planned by the Zionists and their allies in the US Administration then, in complicity with the arms manufacturing companies, and the owner of the world?” he asked.

Western diplomats walked out of the conference hall, following through on threats that they would leave if the meeting were hijacked by anti-Semitic rhetoric. David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, who did not attend, condemned the remarks as “offensive, inflammatory and utterly unacceptable”, adding that “such hate-filled rhetoric is an intolerable abuse of free speech and of the conference”.

Mr Ahmadinejad’s address — his first on the global stage since President Obama’s inauguration — deals a serious blow to hopes of American rapprochement with Iran, a key plank of the new President’s foreign policy. The US was one of eight Western nations that joined Israel in boycotting the conference.

While condemning Mr Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric, Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, confirmed that Washington was still seeking to talk directly with Iran.

However, the latest tirade will do nothing to help Mr Obama to persuade Israel or his domestic critics that he knows how to deal with Mr Ahmadinejad, who is seeking re-election in June with the support of the hardline ruling clergy.

Some had hoped that Mr Ahmadinejad might show restraint amid signs of a thawing of relations with Washington that is already at risk after the jailing of the American journalist Roxana Saberi. But his performance suggested that he felt confident he had the upper hand in any future negotiations over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, condemned Mr Ahmadinejad’s “hate speech” but was left embarrassed by earlier remarks in which he expressed “profound disappointment” at the boycott and by the admission that he had “gently warned” the Iranian President against attacking Israel.

The conference, dubbed Durban II, followed a similar event in the South African city in 2001. That gathering was marred by furious rows after Arab and African nations tried to hijack it to seek slavery reparations and cast the Middle East conflict as a struggle against Israeli racism.

Israel, which recalled its ambassador in protest at the decision by President Merz of Switzerland to meet Mr Ahmadinejad, expressed its disgust that a platform was afforded to the Iranian leader. Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, accused Mr Ahmadinejad of distorting history.

He said: “Israel will not allow Holocaust deniers to carry out another Holocaust against the Jewish people.”

artikel asal : The Times