UANI Calls on Manhattan Hotels to Refuse to Host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad During the 2011 UN General Assembly

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 21, 2011
Contact: Nathan Carleton, [email protected]
Phone: (212) 554-3296     

UANI Calls on Manhattan Hotels to Refuse to Host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad During the 2011 UN General Assembly

New York, NY - On Thursday, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) called on New York City hotels to refuse to host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during this year's United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September 2011.  

This is the third consecutive year that UANI is leading its Hotels Campaign. In previous years, UANI and its supporters have pressured multiple hotels to deny accommodations to Ahmadinejad and his delegation.

In separate letters to dozens of New York hotels, UANI President, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, wrote:   

President Ahmadinejad is the leader of a criminal regime that flouts international law by pursuing an illegal nuclear weapons program, sponsoring terrorism, and abusing its own citizens.  We strongly believe that no American-based venue should host this man.  We are calling on you and all other New York-area venues to help isolate and condemn the Iranian regime by refusing to host President Ahmadinejad and his cohorts...

It is also worth recalling that in his speech before the General Assembly last year, Ahmadinejad despicably claimed that the U.S. orchestrated the September 11 terrorist attacks against its own citizens... With the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaching this September and in light of previously undisclosed information regarding the Iranian regime's complicity in the 9/11 attacks (The New York Times. "Court Filings Assert Iran Had Link to 9/11 Attacks," May 20, 2011),  New Yorkers, and by extension all Americans, will not tolerate Ahmadinejad's conspiratorial claims and will not look kindly on any venues that provide him with comfort and accommodation during his stay in New York City.    

In 2009, UANI and its supporters successfully urged The New York Helmsley Hotel, Gotham Hall and the Essex House to refuse to host Ahmadinejad. As a result, Ahmadinejad was effectively quarantined to the InterContinental New York Barclay, the one hotel in New York that agreed to accommodate the Iranian delegation.

In 2010, InterContinental made the ethical decision to not host Ahmadinejad, isolating him to the only hotel that would accept him, the Hilton Manhattan East. For its irresponsible decision, Hilton received a great deal of negative publicity in the media, and its guests were significantly inconvenienced.

Click here to learn more about UANI's Hotels Campaign.
Click here to read the letter UANI sent to New York City hotels.