J Street Response to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Address to the United Nations General Assembly

September 26, 2012

In what has become an unwelcome annual tradition, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s address to the UN General Assembly was unsurprisingly outrageous and offensive. President Ahmadinejad, who has in anti-Israel and anti-Semitic statements repeatedly threatened Israel’s survival and denied the Jewish people’s historic connection to that land, degrades the standing of the UN and undermines both the spirit and letter of the UN Charter with each such address.

Not only did his speech further isolate Iran from the international community, but it also did nothing to improve the prospects for his people, who continue to suffer under a repressive regime. His comments blatantly ignored the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency has continued to find Iran noncompliant with its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty in several respects.

This combination of an oppressive and dangerous regime and an illicit nuclear program gives rise to very real and justified concerns for the US, Israel and the global community. J Street regards this as a very serious threat. We support the Obama Administration’s policies of applying pressure on Iran through unprecedented economic sanctions and its efforts to resolve this issue through diplomacy.

Iran’s leaders must bring their country back into the community of nations by ceasing its nuclear defiance and its hateful rhetoric against Israel, and by treating its people according to universally recognized standards of human and political rights.