Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Ahmadinejad at U.N.: U.S. Planned 9/11 To Save Israel

The United States arranged the 9/11 attacks “to save the Zionist regime,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the United Nations General Assembly.

The U.S. delegation walked out of Ahmadinejad’s controversial speech Thursday at the U.N. in New York, as did all 27 European Union delegations, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Costa Rica, according to reports.

The Islamic Republic president told the Assembly that there were three theories about who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, all involving American officials’ complicity at the highest levels. He called on the U.N. to establish “an independent fact-finding group” to look into the events of Sept. 11.

Ahmadinejad used the forum to attack Israel, continuing the attacks he had been launching all week during media interviews.

“This regime (Israel), which enjoys the absolute support of some western countries, regularly threatens the countries in the region and continues publicly announced assassination of Palestinian figures and others, while Palestinian defenders … are labeled as terrorists and anti-Semites,” he said.

“All values, even the freedom of expression, in Europe and the United States, are being sacrificed at the altar of Zionism,” Ahmadinejad said.

In a response to Ahmadinejad’s speech, the United States Mission to the United Nations said in a statement: “Rather than representing the aspirations and goodwill of the Iranian people, Mr. Ahmadinejad has yet again chosen to spout vile conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slurs that are as abhorrent and delusional as they are predictable.”

In an interview Wednesday on CNN’s Larry King Live, Ahmadinejad called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “skilled killer.”

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.