Jean Baptiste Mattei, French Ambassador to the UN |
When the president of Iran, Ahmadinejad, made comments at the UN denying the Holocaust, he emptied the hall. Those who walked out included delegates from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US and Israel. Jean Baptiste Mattei, French ambassador to the UN, told France 24 news: "We had very strict instructions to ensure that the Conference wouldn’t turn into a platform for anti-Israeli feelings...As soon as Ahmadinejad mentioned Israel and the Jewish people under the terms you’re already familiar with, we collectively decided to leave the room to make a point.”
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's UN speech provokes walkout
United Nations delegates walked out for the seventh consecutive year during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech in New York yesterday, leaving him addressing an almost empty room.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked the usual walkout by delegates when he addressed the 66th UN General Assembly in New York on Sept. 22. Despite his intervention in the release of two American men held in an Iranian prison, convicted of spying, it was the U.S. that led the walkout of delegates from 30 nations. According to the Sacramento Bee, other delegates that walked out during Ahmadinejad’s speech included those from the EU member states, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
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