Ahmadinejad launches tirade against United States, West

"Sixty-plus years of Zionism have only brought humiliation and destruction to Palestinians and the region," Iranian president says.

By HERB KEINON
Russian President Dimitri Medvedev_311 (photo credit: Reuters)
Russian President Dimitri Medvedev_311
(photo credit: Reuters)
ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a brutal verbal attack on the West at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Wednesday, mentioning Zionism as one of history’s worst ills.
He said that 60 plus years of Zionism has brought only humiliation and destruction to the Palestinians and the region.
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But Israel got off easy in Ahmadinejad’s tirade, as the Iranian leader viciously attacked the US and the West for a long litany of horrors that included slavery, colonization, the pillaging of Africa, World Wars I and II and numerous wars since then, nuclear warfare, and creating the atmosphere leading to 9/11 which he said was the pretext for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that he claimed has taken more than a million lives.
Speaking to the heads of state that make up the SCO regional security organization – China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, as well as to representatives of Pakistan, India and Mongolia, who, like Iran, are observers – Ahmadinejad asked rhetorically whether any of the countries represented in the hall “played a role in the black era of slavery or destruction of hundreds of millions of human beings.
“Have any of these countries pillaged and looted cultural wealth through colonial methods?” he asked. Have any of these countries “used an atomic bomb against defenseless citizens of another country.”
And then, in his list of ills, he asked whether any of the countries were responsible for Zionism that has wrought 60 plus years of “destruction and humiliation on the Palestinians and the people of the Middle East.
“There are dozens of questions like these, and they have clear answers,” Ahmadinejad said. “I proudly announce that none of our nations and governments were responsible for the ugly historic evidence I have presented.
We have been in favor of peace and welfare.
“How can one trust fake defenders while they are pursuing old colonial goals, but with new mottos and use one-sided systems to rule the world,” he said in reference to the US and the West.
The other leaders at the conference, including Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, sat impassively during his comments.
Each leader at the conference, marking the 10 years since the founding of the regional security organization that presents itself as a counterbalance to NATO, spoke briefly and – with Ahmadinejad’s short exception – steered wide of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict or the current upheaval in the Middle East. The leaders also made no mention of Iran’s nuclear threat.
The issue was, however, reportedly raised in bilateral meetings with his counterparts on the sidelines of the summit.
China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan are full members of the organization, which promotes economic, military and security cooperation. Iran, Pakistan, India, and Mongolia enjoy observer status.
Because of UN sanctions against it, Iran is presently barred from joining as a full member.