NEW YORK - World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder said Thursday that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's remarks at the 71st United Nations General Assembly “showed that Iran is every bit as inflammatory and inciting today as it was under former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”
“We may have thought that under Rouhani, Iran’s anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric had abated, but clearly, Iran hasn’t changed. It still promotes hatred against Israel, fixated on the notion of a Zionist conspiracy against the world,” Lauder said. “We urge world leaders to strongly condemn his hateful discourse and recognize that Iran is still every bit as dangerous as we feared.”
In his speech, Rouhani accused Israel of afflicting the Palestinians with a “web of apartheid policies and atrocities” and accused “Zionist pressure groups” of manipulating the American government into violating the nuclear deal with Tehran.
Following the speeches delivered by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Lauder said:
"After listening intently to both speeches I am going to choose to focus on the positive rhetoric I heard from both parties. I call on both sides to work together to find a lasting peace. We cannot afford to do nothing and accept the status quo, every day that goes by is a day lost to achieving the ultimate goal of having two states for two people living side by side in peace and prosperity."
