Dozens Walk Out on Bizarre Anti-Israeli Rant by Iran's Ahmadinejad at UN Conference

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By Mike Griffith, Staff Writer

Now we see that the Obama administration was right in boycotting the UN conference on racism being held in Geneva, Switzerland.  At today’s session, Iran’s nutty President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered yet another bizarre anti-Israeli rant, prompting a walkout by dozens of European delegates.

Iran’s President Slams Israel, Prompts Walkouts

By CHIP CUMMINS and CHARLES FORELLE

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prompted an angry walk-out by European diplomats at a racism conference in Geneva, calling Israel the "most cruel and repressive racist regime" and throwing up what could be a new hurdle to U.S. rapprochement with Tehran.

The U.S., along with a handful of European allies, had previously said they’d stay away from the United Nations event, worried it would become a platform for criticizing Israel. The Iranian president’s planned attendance added fuel to those concerns. Earlier in his term, he questioned whether the Holocaust really happened and has said Israel should be wiped off the map. . . .

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s tone and comments Monday shocked the international community once again. The uproar the comments sparked could make it more difficult for Mr. Obama to convince allies, in particular Israel, along with the U.S. public, to continue to accommodate his outreach to Tehran.

The speech comes just days after an Iranian court sentenced an Iranian-American journalist to eight years in prison for spying, drawing a rebuke from the U.S. State Department.

In an echo of his previous Holocaust denial, Mr. Ahmadinejad, in a rambling speech Monday, castigated the U.S. and Europe for acting after World War II to make "an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering," according to an English translation of the speech released by the Associated Press.

Protesters, dressed in clown wigs and holding placards, interrupted his speech with shouts of "shame! shame!" and "racist! racist!" the AP reported. . . .

David Miliband, Britian’s foreign secretary, called the speech "offensive, inflammatory and utterly unacceptable." The U.K. walked out, but Mr. Miliband said British representatives would remain at the conference and not "leave the stage only to those, like President Ahmadinejad, who would take global efforts against racism backwards." French President Nicolas Sarkozy called it a "hateful speech."