Call it cruel coincidence but today, on Yom Kippur, the holiest of days for Jews around the world, the United Nations gives its most prestigious speaking platform — the podium at the General Assembly — to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Somehow doubt he’ll be wishing his Jewish friends an “easy fast.”
The General Assembly session kicks off at 0900 EDT with a speech from Yemen’s H.E. Mr. Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi Mansour.
The UN “encourages” each leader to stick to 15 minutes but all invariably go over that time — some run for an hour. Yesterday, for example, US President Barack Obama spoke for 30 minutes.
Iran’s Ahmadinejad is slotted in the 7th spot this morning.
Other notables speaking today:
- Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi is slotted 10th
- Mexico’s President Felipé Calderon is slotted 11th
- UK Prime Minister David Cameron is slotted 12th
- Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiko Noda is slotted 13th
- European Council leader Herman Van Rompuy is 14th
- Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti is 16th
- Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard (she’ll be lobbying for a UN Security Council seat) is the 17th and final speaker of the morning session which is supposed to end at 1300 EDT.
The afternoon session begins at 1500 EDT. The UN distinguishes itself once again by giving the 9th slot this afternoon to Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.
I’m at the United Nations this week reporting on these speeches here, on Twitter, at our Sun Media web sites and, should be up as often as I can on Sun News Network.
It is time for Canada to walk out of the UN. The UN had a purpose until the late 1990’s.
David Akin can call Mugabe a madman but to us he is our hero fighting a big battle against the powerful,cunning and dangerous western countries who are busy unleashing terror against small and weak nations with impunity under the guise of democracy.If the truth be told it is the United States which is the greatest threat to world peace as it does what pleases itself.Masauso
How ironic that Americans are calling the Iranian president a ‘terrorist’ and a ‘murderer’. It shows how effective American propaganda is, when the real terrorist murderer, who sends unmanned drones to massacre whole families, is their own President Barack Obama.
If Iran wants to build nuclear bombs, we should offer help. Have we not some unused “drones” that we can load with nuclear materials and drop them on their processing plants? Any country that wants nuclear weapons, ignores the fact that one submarine off their coast could saturate a place like Iran, only an egomaniac would think any action by Iran would not be met by overwhelming suppression. Did not Chairman Mao say that power comes out of the barrel of a gun ? Bombast is no protection.