Wiesel urges U.N. to indict Iranian president

Reuters

UNITED NATIONS: Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel urged the United Nations on Monday to indict Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for inciting genocide rather than allow him to speak at the U.N. General Assembly.

Wiesel spoke to thousands of people at a rally to urge world leaders to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons -- something Tehran denies it is trying to do, but which Western powers suspect is the true aim of its nuclear program.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner said Ahmadinejad, who has said Israel should be wiped off the map, should be indicted for "propagating genocidal policies."

"He's not Hitler, nobody is Hitler, but he wishes to follow in Hitler's footsteps and that makes him an arch criminal," Wiesel said, urging world leaders to leave the hall when Ahmadinejad speaks at the General Assembly on Tuesday.

"President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran is a threat to world peace and he should not be here in New York. His place is in ... a United Nations prison cell," Wiesel said.

Ahmadinejad railed against the United States during his last two appearances at the General Assembly, which takes place at the U.N. headquarters on international territory on the east side of Manhattan.

All world leaders are invited to the annual gathering in September, to the discomfort of the United States which has been forced over the years to allow in foes like Cuba's Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Ahmadinejad.

Several other speakers at the protest said the Iranian president should be treated as an international outcast and urged a group of religious leaders who have invited him to an event on interfaith dialogue on Thursday to rescind the offer.

Monday's protest became a political football after Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton cancelled her attendance on learning that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was also due to attend.

Organizers then withdraw the invitation to Palin, saying they did not want the event to be partisan.

Members of the crowd chanted "Stop Iran Now" and carried placards with messages like "Zero Tolerance for Islamofascists" and "Bomb Buschur" -- an apparent reference to the port city of Bushehr where Iran is building a nuclear power plant.