A leading New York hotel has canceled a banquet it was scheduled to host after learning that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was expected to speak there. The Helmsley Hotel announced that the event, booked by an Iranian student group for 24 September, would not be held at its facility. The hotel management said it had been unaware that Ahmadinejad would be there until informed by the pressure group United Against a Nuclear Iran. "As soon as Helmsley corporate management learned of the possibility of either the Iranian Mission or President Ahmadinejad holding a function at the New York Helmsley Hotel, they immediately ordered the cancellation of that function," said Howard Rubenstein, spokesman for Helmsley Properties.
"Neither the Iranian Mission nor President Ahmadinejad is welcome at any Helmsley facility. The Helmsley organization is grateful to United Against Nuclear Iran for bringing this matter to its attention so that appropriate action could be taken." United Against Nuclear Iran is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition in the United States.
Several other leading hotels in New York reportedly also refused to give rooms to Ahmadinejad and his delegation, as well as to Libya’s ruler Muammar al-Ghaddafi. Ahmadinejad is expected to stay at the Barclays InterContinental Hotel.
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