Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech received mixed reaction by Arabs

THE Iranian President's inflammatory speech to a United Nations conference in Geneva attracted positive reactions in the Palestinian media, but the Saudi media ridiculed Ahmadinejad.

Al-Quds, the Palestinian Arabic newspaper published in Jerusalem, led yesterday's issue with its coverage of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech. "European and Western countries withdrew from the session during the speech of Iranian President as soon as he mentioned Palestine and criticised the establishment of the state of Israel," it said.

Al-Ayyam, published in the large West Bank city of Ramallah, devoted its front page to the walk-out staged by several European nations. It cast the Ahmadinejad speech as criticism of the way Israel treated Palestinians.

A leading Arabic newspaper published in London and widely read across the Palestinian territories, al-Quds al-Arabi, said the Iranian President had only spoken the truth. MORE HERE

The Saudi press, often reflective of its government line, on Tuesday reacted with mockery to the speech of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in which he equated Israel to a “racist government”.

The press has largely focused on the outcry that the Iranian president has once again provoked in the West, at a time when the relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran are at an impasse.

In no position to lecture

“Has Iran sacrificed one date palm for Palestine? Has Tehran lost one single man in the battlefield during the six wars against Israel?” ironically asks Tareq Al-Homayed, editor in chief of top selling newspaper, Sharq Al-Awsat.

On its part, the newspaper Al-Madina believes that the Iranian president was not the person best qualified to denounce “Israel’s racism”.

“The Iranian president has rightly accused Israel of racism. But Ahmadinejad is not well placed to say it”, declares its editorial. “Israel, admittedly, is a racist and aggressor (State). It daily attacks our land and our people in Palestine and in the Golan. But it is also true that Iran has occupied Arab islands and has over the last 38 years persisted in keeping them under its own domination”, the newspaper adds.MORE HERE.