Thursday, September 24th 2009

Austria as willing audience for Ahmadinejad

STOP THE BOMB and Ariel Muzicant strongly criticize Austrian behavior at UN General Assembly

While about 300 people protested yesterday at a rally organized by STOP THE BOMB in front of the Vienna Opera House against the UN speech of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Austria continues its policy of appeasement and cooperation with the Iranian regime at the UN General Assembly. Right before the rally, head of 1st district and former head of the Austrian People’s Party delegation in the European Parliament, Ursula Stenzel, expressed her hope that the Austrian delegates would follow numerous other delegations and leave the hall during Ahmadinejad’s speech. In his message to the participants of the rally, the spokesperson for foreign policy of the Green Party, Alexander Van der Bellen, called upon the Austrian delegation to deliver a clear message of protest during Ahmadinejad’s speech. All these hopes were spoiled, however. Ariel Muzicant, head of Austria’s Jewish Community and one of the main speakers at yesterday’s rally, gives a disappointed résume: „The Austrian foreign policy actors obviously refrain even from small gestures of protest against the Iranian regime in order to not endanger the still excellent business ties of Austrian companies with Iran. These business ties together with the Austrian way of politics keep the anti-Semitic regime in Tehran and its nuclear program alive.“

Simone Dinah Hartmann, spokeswoman of STOP THE BOMB, remains disillusioned taking into account the Austrian way of flattering the President of the Iranian terror regime: „Austrian politics stabs the Iranian freedom movement in the back with its behavior. And obviously it seems completely irrelevant for Austrian foreign policy that Holocaust denial is a criminal act in this country.“
Heribert Schiedel, an expert on right wing extremism of the Austrian Campaign against Anti-Semitism, strongly condemns the behavior of the Austrian delegation at the UN General Assembly: „For the Iranian regime, it is an additional boost for its legitimacy to be treated as full-fledged member of the United Nations despite Holocaust denial and the announcement of its policy of extermination against Jews. With their behavior at yesterday’s UN General Assembly, the Austrian delegates reinforced the legitimacy of a Holocaust denier.“