THIRTY DELEGATIONS ATTENDING the UN General Assembley meeting yesterday walked out during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech, after the Iranian president said that most people in the world believe that the US government was behind the 9/11 attacks.

He said that most people and politicians, including Americans, believed that “some segments within the US government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order to save the Zionist machine.”

He suggested that some people thought that the US government supported and then took advantage of the 9/11 attack, and that “a propaganda machine came into full force” after the attacks which suggested that the world was exposed to serious danger in the form of terrorism.

Ahmadinejad criticised the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying:

It was said that some 3,000 people were killed on September 11, for which we are all very saddened. Yet, up until now, in Afghanistan and Iraq, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, millions wounded and displaced, and the conflict is still going on and expanding.

This video shows some of the diplomats leaving the UN chamber during Ahmadinehad’s speech:

Walkout

Radio New Zealand reports that the 27 EU delegates walked out during Ahmadinejad’s speech, as did the US and New Zealand.

A statement from the US delegation released shortly after it left the chamber, described Ahmadinejad’s words as being “as abhorrent and delusional as they are predictable”, according to the Wall Street Journal.

US officials said they decided to leave after the Iranian leader had crossed a line in his remarks.

Britain’s deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, is expected to use his UN speech today to denounce Ahmedinejad’s comments as “attention-grabbing pronouncements”, according to AP.

Nuclear issues

The Iranian president also said that 2011 should be the year of nuclear disarmanent, the BBC reports, and that he would host a conference on terrorism next year.

He said that some UN Security Council members had confused nuclear energy with nuclear bombs, and that nuclear energy is “clean and cheap and a Heavenly gift, which is amongst the most suitable alternatives to cut pollutions emanating from fossil fuels”.

AFP reports that Iran has withdrawn its bid for a seat on one of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board after it failed to garner enough support for its candidacy. Last month, the IAEA accused Iran of trying to disrupt the agency’s efforts to monitor its nuclear development programme.

The IAEA is the UN’s atomic watchdog.