Iranians In NY Protest Ahmadinejad Before U.N. Speech

Reuters

Hundreds of Iranians picketed the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York on Wednesday, vowing not to accept Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as their president hours before his speech to the United Nations. "Ahmadinejad is not our president," chanted Iranians who gathered outside the mission near the U.N. headquarters on Manhattan's East Side. "I am here to raise my voice for Iran," said Babak Moslehi, 35, a management student who came from Chicago. "He should not be allowed to represent Iran at the U.N. meeting." "Murder, torture, rape. Ahmadinejad is accountable," read banners carried by protesters. Many protesters wore green, the symbol of support for the opposition led by defeated moderate candidate Mirhossein Mousavi. They complained of human rights abuses in Iran.

Mousavi rejects results that gave Ahmadinejad nearly 63 percent of the vote in the June 12 election, saying his government is illegitimate. Officials say it was the healthiest election in the three decades. During his first trip to the West since the disputed vote, Ahmadinejad was expected to deliver another controversial speech, railing against Israel and denying Iran is seeking a nuclear bomb. Mehdi Saharkhiz, son of detained moderate Isa Saharkhiz, denounced the "electoral coup d'etat" in the Islamic state. "The mass arrest of Iranian moderates proves that it was an electoral coup d'etat in the country ... Ahmadinejad is not our elected president," he said. Dozens of prominent moderates, accused of trying to overthrow the clerical establishment, were tossed in jail along with hundreds of protesters who flooded the streets after the vote in the bloodiest unrest since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

The opposition says more than 70 people died in protests after the vote, contradicting the official figure of 36 dead. Ahmadinejad's comments on the Holocaust have caused international outcry and isolated Iran. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly said his criticism is aimed at the "Zionist regime" for its oppression of the Palestinians rather than at Jews. The president on Friday called the Holocaust a mythical lie that formed the pretext to create the "Zionist regime" in Israel, raising the stakes against Israel as world powers try to decide how to deal with the nuclear ambitions of an Iran in political turmoil.