Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday to unveil a vision of a world without Israel, in which America and Europe would be freed of what he said was Zionist oppression.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at the UN last year.
Photo: AP
Culminating a concerted assault on what he described as the injustices and oppressions practiced by the "big powers" since World War II, he said that the ungodly era of lewdness and violence was coming to a close and that "the age of monotheism has commenced."
The world was "nearing the sunset of the time of empires," he said, and urged the dominant world powers to eschew their "obedience to Satan" and "submit to the will of god." If they did so, "they will be saved." If not, "calamities will befall them."
But whether or not these powers chose to reform themselves, he said, the day was fast approaching when "occupied lands will be freed. Palestine and Iraq will be liberated from the domination of the occupiers." And the people of America and Europe would be liberated from Zionist oppression. "This is the promise of god," he said. "Therefore it will be fulfilled."
Earlier in his address, the Iranian president insisted again that his country's nuclear program was peaceful and transparent, and repeated and elaborated on the charges he had levelled at Columbia University on Monday against Israel - which he did not mention by name, but rather called "the illegal Zionist regime."
He told the assembled world leaders that the people of Palestine had been punished for 60 years for what had happened in Europe. They had been held "under occupation of the illegal Zionist regime," he said. "The Palestinian people have been displaced," he went on, "incarcerated under abhorrent conditions." They were being deprived of water and medicine "for the sin of asking for freedom."
Ahmadinejad accused Israel of terrorism and castigated "the brutal Zionists" for carrying out targeted assassinations.
He also described immigration to Israel as the gathering "of Jews from around the world" with false promises, and their enforced settlement "in the occupied territories" where there were induced "to malevolence against the Palestinian people."
He spoke of a range of global injustices being rooted in the domination by the victors of World War II over the vanquished, and being perpetuated by the skewed composition of the permanent membership of the UN Security Council. The big powers, he said, had "put themselves in the position of god" and lost "their respect for the dignity of humans."
As a remedy, he proposed the formation of "a coalition for peace," guided by "monotheism, justice and compassion for humans," and the reforming of the Security Council based on justice and democracy.
On the nuclear issue, he said Iran's activities were "completely peaceful and transparent" and castigated the "illegal" sanctions initiatives against his country. But "the nuclear issue of Iran is now closed," he said, however, indicting that Iran had prevailed, thanks to the "resistance of the Iranian people."
