Attempting to Decipher the Perplexing Rhetoric of Ahmadinejad’s U.N. Speech
Adam Gianella /
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s highly anticipated U.N. speech can be summed up in one word: erratic.
Although he toned down most of the incendiary language he used in previous years, Ahmadinejad whined about how “the current world order is discriminatory and based on injustice.” To replace it, Ahmadinejad tried to lay out a framework to shape a “new world order” that he claimed would “revive human dignity” and be based upon “peace, lasting security and welfare for all walks of life around the globe.”
Of course, Ahmadinejad still found ample time to attack the United States and Israel, which he refused to mention by name. Instead, he referred to Israel as “the Zionists.” At one point, he even had the audacity to refer to Israel as “uncivilized Zionists,” in reference to his claim that they resort to using military threats and actions against Iran to accomplish their goals.
What about Iran? Last year, Iran threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz to achieve its goals. How does that not equate to being a military action?
Ahmandinejad set out a list of hypothetical scenarios, including, “Imagine for a moment [how the world would be] had extremism or terrorism not been used to secure political goals.” How deceitful of him, considering that Iran’s Islamist dictatorship—the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism—has relied heavily on terrorism to seize power, attack foreign enemies, and repress domestic opposition.
Just recently, it was reported that Iran had deployed members of its elite Quds force to help the oppressive Assad regime in Syria defeat the rebel opposition there. Given the fact that the Assad regime has a long record of exporting terrorism that is second only to Iran’s, Ahmandinejad would certainly have a difficult time explaining the weapons that his country is exporting to Syria to aid Assad’s forces.
Ahmadinejad ended his speech on a bizarre note that was based in religious doctrine. After clarifying that he believed that U.S. leadership of the current world order was failing, he tried to illustrate a world that would need to come together and establish a new world order to survive.
As usual, Ahmadinejad took jabs at the U.S. and Israel, except that this time, in his last U.N. speech as Iran’s president, he was much calmer and more subtle in his approach. While the tone of his message changed slightly, his mission remained the same: to spread hatred and mistrust of the U.S., Israel, and the entire current world system.
Adam Gianella is currently a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. For more information on interning at Heritage, please visit: http://www.heritage.org/about/departments/ylp.cfm.