UN:THOUSANDS OF demonstrators gathered in front of UN headquarters yesterday in the first of several rallies to protest against the presence of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at this year's general assembly debate, writes Mary Fitzgerald,Foreign Affairs Correspondent, at the United Nations
The rally, held by a consortium of Jewish groups, had been the focus of sniping between the Republican and Democratic camps with the former claiming that Democrats had pressured organisers to withdraw an invitation for its vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin to appear.
Former Democratic presidential candidate, senator Hillary Clinton, was due to speak at the protest, but later cancelled when she learned Palin was also invited to address the rally. Mrs Clinton's aides said she did not want to take part in a "partisan political event".
Ms Palin, meanwhile, is in New York to meet several world leaders on the sidelines of the General Assembly. In a bid to boost the vice-presidential nominee's foreign policy credentials, officials have scheduled meetings with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, and Pakistan's newly installed president Asif Ali Zardari.
Ms Palin will also meet Colombian president Alvaro Uribe and former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger.
At yesterday's demonstration, protesters waving Israeli flags listened to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel call for the Iranian president to be tried for inciting crimes against humanity.
Many protesters held banners warning of the threat they believe Iran poses, particularly in relation to its nuclear ambitions.
Mr Ahmadinejad is to address the general assembly this afternoon, after US President George W Bush makes his eighth and final appearance at the assembly.