It’s time for me to eat a little crow – feathers and all – here… I didn’t think the U.S. delegation would walk out during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s address to the United Nations General Assembly this evening. But they did… along with the delegations of at least a dozen other nations:
France on Wednesday led a walkout of a dozen delegations, including the United States, to protest a fiery speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the UN General Assembly.
“It is disappointing that Mr Ahmadinejad has once again chosen to espouse hateful, offensive and anti-Semitic rhetoric,” Mark Kornblau, spokesman to the US mission to the United Nations, said in a statement.
Delegations from Argentina, Australia, Britain, Costa Rica, Denmark, France Germany, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand and the United States left the room as Ahmadinejad began to rail against Israel, a European source said.
Israel had already called for a boycott of the speech, and was not present when the Iranian leader began his address. Canada had already said it would heed the boycott call.
I doubt the U.S. delegation would have walked out without White House approval so kudos to Pres. Obama for demonstrating a little moral clarity.
CBC News has great photo of the largely empty General Assembly chamber here.