Ahmadinejad UN speech sparks walk-outs

Walked on the United States and other Western delegations in the General Assembly of the United Nations and 65 out of protest against the Iranian leader's speech.

Said Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, some saw the September 11 attacks on the United States as part of a U.S. conspiracy to protect Israel.

Ahmadinejad was speaking at the first day of the marathon for the United Nations for a week in the diplomatic headquarters in New York.

The United States denounced his remarks on the 2001 attacks, which killed nearly 3000 people, as "hateful and delusional."

He joined the U.S. delegation in its walk by representatives from 32 other countries - including all European Union countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and Costa Rica.

But it seems to discourage Mr. Ahmadinejad, by protest, and continued his attack on Zionism and Israel, and diplomatic correspondent says the BBC's Jonathan Marcus.
Capitalist 'failures'

The Iranian president's speech was part political satire, part sermon, our correspondent says - Offer a wide range of his world view in particular.

The president said he would host a conference on terrorism in 2011, and that it should be the year for nuclear disarmament.

Iran refused to repeat that it was seeking the ability to make nuclear weapons, Ahmadinejad said some members of the Security Council of the United Nations had "equated nuclear energy with nuclear bombs."

He also said Tehran would not submit to what he called unnecessary pressure from the IAEA of nuclear energy, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Mr. Ahmadinejad's speech, only through the identification of what he called the failure of the existing world order and capitalism, he said, should be administered by a virtuous people in the world like the prophets.

Although he said that Iran was ready for a serious discussion with the United States state, our correspondent says that evidence of this speech there would be little for them to talk about.

Response to the letter, Mark Kornblau, a spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, told AFP news agency: "Instead of representing the aspirations and good faith of the Iranian people, and again after the selection of Mr. Ahmadinejad to spout conspiracy theories despicable and anti-slander-Semitism, which is also hateful and delusional because they are unpredictable. "

In the General Assembly of the United Nations, and leaders take to the stage to deliver speeches on the topic of their choice.

Iran has already endured four rounds of punitive economic sanctions are increasingly on the nuclear dispute.

Discuss the foreign ministers from countries including the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia on this issue at a meeting held on Wednesday, is also likely to be raised on the sidelines of the General Assembly.

Dozens of fringe meetings take place, correspondents say they are the most important work for this event.

Peacekeeping in Somalia, and a possible collapse in the Sudan, the conflict in Yemen, and climate change, UN reform is all set to feature in this small meetings.
'Hard facts'

Speaking shortly after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a diplomatic marathon on Thursday, urged U.S. President Barack Obama for the public to provide direct support to the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, which began on September 2.

He said those who yearn for an independent Palestinian state should not be trying to demolish Israel, and called on Israel to extend the cease building new settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Obama has accepted that many are still pessimistic about the peace process, with cynics saying the two sides trust each other too, and also internally divided, to establish a lasting peace.

"Some say that the gaps between the two sides is very large, and the possibility for talks to break a very large, and that after decades of failure, and peace is simply not possible."

But he called the U.S. president on his fellow leaders to consider the alternative.

"If no agreement is reached, the Palestinians will never know the pride and dignity that come with their own state. Israelis will never know certainty and security that comes with a sovereign neighbor and committed to stable coexistence.

"The hard facts of demography take hold, and will shed more blood. This holy land will remain a symbol of our differences, rather than our common humanity."

In his opening statement, Mr. Ban called on States to stand together in times of increasing challenges and uncertainty.

He said the United Nations has provided the moral compass for the world in which social inequalities were growing, with women and children bear the brunt.

He called for "a stronger United Nations for a better world" a.

Ban said the UN has adopted an ambitious plan for a more prosperous world free from poverty, and for a greener and more secure without nuclear weapons.