World leaders have condemned the distortion of the UN anti-racism conference to promote racist attacks on Jews and Israel.
Presidents and Prime Ministers from around the world were swift to attack the speech by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, many making it clear that this is exactly why they boycotted the conference.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the speech was ” an intolerable call for racist hatred that flouts the ideals and the values inscribed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not tolerate such attacks. “We will not allow Holocaust deniers to carry out another Holocaust against the Jewish people. That is the supreme obligation of the state of Israel, and that is my supreme obligation as prime minister of Israel.”
US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Alejandro Wolff called on Iranian leadership to change its attitude. “I can’t think of any other word than shameful. It does a grave injustice to the Iranian nation and the Iranian people, and we call on the Iranian leadership to show much more measured, moderate, honest and constructive rhetoric when dealing with issues in the region.”
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said President Ahmadinejad’s remarks were “offensive, inflammatory and utterly unacceptable. That such remarks were made using the platform of the UN’s anti-racism conference is all the more reprehensible.”
The Czech Foreign Ministry, holder of the EU presidency, pulled out its delegation. “… We cannot allow, through our presence, the legitimisation of absolutely unacceptable anti-Israeli attacks … The Czech delegation will not return to the conference at all, as a consequence of Ahmadinejad’s speech,” said a Foreign Ministry statement.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was pleased by the strong reaction. “To the extent that the reaction demonstrated vocal opposition to what President Ahmadinejad stands for and has to say, I think that’s a very positive thing.”
Chief Vatican Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the speech was unacceptable. “Naturally, speeches like that of the Iranian president do not go in the right direction, because, even if he did not deny the Holocaust or Israel’s right to exist, his expressions were extremist and unacceptable.”
Tags: Ahmadinejad, Britain, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Iran, Israel, United States, Vatican
