Ahmadinejad calls for ‘new world order’ in rambling UN speech

Published on 27/09/2012 00:00

In WHAT was by his standards, a low-key speech, Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the UN General Assembly yesterday his country was under constant threat of military action from “uncivilised Zionists” and called for a new world order not dominated by western powers in the service of “the devil”.

In his eighth address to the UN General Assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders, Mr Ahmadinejad painted a gloomy picture of a world driven by greed rather than moral values.

“The current abysmal situation of the world and the bitter incidents of history are due mainly to the wrong management of the world and the self-proclaimed centres of power who have entrusted themselves to the devil,” he said, in what is expected to be his last address to the world body.

There was no reiteration of his comments to journalists in New York on Monday, that Israel had no roots in the Middle East and would be “eliminated”.

However, in a clear reference to Israel, he told the assembly: “Continued threat by the uncivilised Zionists to resort to military action against our great nation is a clear example of this bitter reality.”

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to speak at the UN today, has hinted Israel could strike Iran’s nuclear sites, and has criticised US president Barack Obama’s position that sanctions and diplomacy should be given more time to stop Tehran acquiring nuclear weapons.

Without mentioning the United States by name, the Iranian president took aim at its global dominance, asking: “Are we to believe that those who spend hundreds of millions of dollars on election campaigns have the interest of the people of the world at their hearts?”

Representatives of the US, Canada and Israel chose not to be present in the UN auditorium for the speech, which coincided with Yom Kippur, one of the most important Jewish holidays.

Mr Ahmadinejad, whose own second and final term in office ends next year, said authority should be used as a sacred gift, “not a chance to amass power and wealth”.

Iran is under sanctions imposed by the UN and western powers for its refusal to comply with Security Council demands to halt its nuclear enrichment programme.

Mr Ahmadinejad said the council, on which Britain, the US, France, Russia and China all have vetoes, prevented the UN from acting in a just and equitable way. He declared: “There is no doubt that the world is in need of a new order.”

He added that this should be “a just and fair order in which everybody is equal before the law and in which there is no double standard”.

“Ahmadinejad gave a long, rambling speech,” said one European diplomat. “Previously we’ve walked out because of his anti-semitism, threats against Israel and 9/11 conspiracies. This year his only crime was incoherence.”