Iran's Ahmadinejad attacks west, prompts walk-out

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacked Western powers on Thursday for a catalog of misdeeds, but his address to the United Nations failed to mention Tehran's disputed nuclear program.   

The U.S. delegation walked out when Ahmadinejad said "arrogant powers" threatened anyone who questioned the Holocaust and the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States with sanctions and military action. Other Western delegations soon made their exit.    

Ahmadinejad made only a passing reference to the Palestinian issue which has overshadowed this year's U.N. General Assembly and did not comment on the Palestinian plan to ask the U.N. Security Council to recognize their nascent state.    

He accused the United States of using the "mysterious" Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as a pretext to launch wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. The United States and its allies "view Zionism as a sacred notion and ideology," the Iranian leader said.    

"Mr Ahmadinejad had a chance to address his own people's aspirations for freedom and dignity, but instead he again turned to abhorrent anti-Semitic slurs and despicable conspiracy theories," Kornblau said in a statement.  

-Reuters