NY Story

19 September 2011 | 22:22 Code : 16377 Middle East.

President Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York to attend the UN General Assembly is now a repeated challenge for public authorities in New York, and also a publicity tool for political radicals.

IRD: Ahmadinejad’s annual visit to New York on the pretext of the UN annual General Assembly has been a hot topic for the western media. Annually, at a time like this or even earlier, Ahmadinejad’s schedule for the visit is reflected in the media and consequently negative reactions and publicity against the Iranian delegation occur.

This trend became stronger after the 88-election events two years ago; from 1388 (2009) onwards, the anti-Islamic-Republic Iranian groups and some of exiles have attended the campaign against the president and the Iranian government, organized in front of the UN and the residence of Ahmadinejad in New York. This provides the favorable context for media to humiliate the Iranian delegation.

Now there is the news that there is some pressure to cancel the dinner in which Ahmadinejad would meet some of the Columbia University. Also, it is said that the Hotel Warwick’s managers are under pressure of US radicals to deny the president a room. All these issues are nothing new and Ahmadinejad and the delegation are completely acquainted with these reactions and positions. While they are warmly welcomed in the eastern Asian and African countries, they face harsh criticism and violent reactions in the West. But as the past, Ahmadinejad should use his well-known restraint, witnessed in all cases of the domestic criticisms (like the postelection events) and cruel foreign attacks (like the recent events in the visits to Italy, the USA and Switzerland).

Of course, in this year’s visit the story is different and there are not destructive measures taken such as those two years ago, as the West understood all the publicity is welcomed by Ahmadinejad to be used as an anti-propaganda tool in front of the microphones and cameras: the more pressure and publicity, the more favorable the context will be for Ahmadinejad. Now, the topic of the Ahmadinejad’s speech and his plan for the visit will be more interesting.