UANI Renews Call for Manhattan Hotels to Refuse to Host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad During the 2011 UN General Assembly

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 23, 2011
Contact: Nathan Carleton, [email protected]
Phone: (212) 554-3296   

UANI Renews Call for Manhattan Hotels to Refuse to Host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad During the 2011 UN General Assembly

New York, NY - On Tuesday, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) renewed its call on New York City hotels to refuse to host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during this year's United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) next month.  

On August 16, The Daily Beast published an Op-Ed by UANI President, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, entitled "Hotels Should Ban Ahmadinejad." Given Ahmadinejad's statements denying 9/11 and the Iranian regime's covert alliance with Al Qaeda, Ambassador Wallace asked whether any Manhattan hotels could "honestly think it appropriate to provide accommodations to the leader of such a detestable government, specifically in the very city where the worst of 9/11 occurred?"

On July 21, UANI first called on New York City's hotels to deny accommodation to Ahmadinejad. Now, with the UNGA closely approaching, UANI is renewing its call.

In separate letters to a number of New York hotels, including the Hilton Manhattan East, Grand Hyatt New York, InterContinental The Barclay, Millennium UN Plaza and Warwick New York, Ambassador Wallace wrote:    

It is worth recalling that speaking before the General Assembly last year, Ahmadinejad despicably claimed that the U.S. orchestrated the September 11 terrorist attacks against its own citizens.  As President Obama remarked at the time, those comments were "offensive," "hateful" and "inexcusable."  With the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaching this September, and in light of previously undisclosed information regarding the Iranian regime's alleged complicity in the 9/11 attacks, its links to Al-Qaeda and its role in killing American soldiers (The New York Times. "Court Filings Assert Iran Had Link to 9/11 Attacks" and The New York Times. "In Shadow of Death, Iraq and U.S. Tiptoe Around a Deadline"), New Yorkers, and by extension all Americans, will not look kindly on any venues that accommodate Ahmadinejad during his stay here in New York City.

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UANI will publicly highlight and applaud those hotels that make the proper moral decision to not host Ahmadinejad and his delegation. ... We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.  Given the urgent nature of this issue please let us hear from you by August 30, 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 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 UANI Hotels Op-Ed on The Daily Beast website.