Britain in UN walkout over president Nejad's 9/11 rant

British diplomats stormed out of the United Nations headquarters last night as Iran’s president delivered a blistering attack on Europe and America. More than a dozen officials including two low-level British delegates and others from France and the United States left the chamber in a symbolic protest after Mahmoud Ah­madinejad described the September 11 attacks as a “mystery”. His ramblings meant David Cameron’s first speech at the UN general assembly in New York started 90 minutes late. In his rant, the Iranian leader attacked the West for causing two world wars, having a history of slavery, using a nuclear bomb against “defenceless people” and imposing and supporting military dictatorships in Asia, Africa and South America. The hardliner, whose rantings caused a walkout at the UN last year, went on to blame Europe and America for colonialism, conflicts in Korea and Vietnam and the persecution of Palestinians. American diplomats were the first to walk out when he claimed the September 11 attacks were a “pretext” for US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He called the fall of the Twin Towers in 2001 “mysterious” and said the US and its allies “view Zionism as a sacred notion and ideology”. He said: “By using their imperialistic media network which is under the influence of colonialism they threaten anyone who questions the Holocaust and the September 11 event with sanctions and military actions.” Later Mr Cameron hit back, saying democracy meant more than votes. He veered from his scripted address on tackling rogue states to argue that, despite the pretext of democracy, Iran brutally crushed ­dissidents. The Prime Minister said: “He didn’t remind us that he runs a country where they may have elections of a sort but they also repress freedom of speech, do everything they can to avoid the accountability of a free media, violently prevent demonstrations and detain and torture those who argue for a better future.