Ahmadinejad’s U.N. Speech Prompts Another Delegate Walkout

Delegates from the United States and Europe walked out of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday afternoon in the middle of a speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he began expressing anti-Israeli sentiment.

“European countries still use the Holocaust, after six decades, as the excuse to pay [a] fine or ransom to the Zionists,” he said as delegates from France got up to leave. He also blamed the United States for the global financial crisis, saying that by dominating the world’s “policymaking establishments,” overspending on the military and “printing trillions of dollars,” it led the way to worldwide inflation.

But this is not the first time delegates have walked out on Ahmadinejad during a speech at the United Nations. It is at least the third year in a row delegates have left him at the podium. In 2010, delegates walked out as Ahmadinejad began detailing a conspiracy theory about how the 9/11 attacks were an American construction to buoy a floundering economy. In 2009, delegates walked out of a U.N. anti-racism conference after he described Israel as having “a racist government.” –BF

Watch delegates walk out on Ahmadinejad during the 2011 U.N. General Assembly below:

Watch delegates walk out on Ahmadinejad in 2010. He begins talking about 9/11 at around 9 minutes in, and delegates begin walking out at around 11 minutes in to the clip below:

And just to lighten the mood, watch SNL’s love song to the Iranian leader below: