New York, NY – United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) today called on New York area hotels to refuse to host President Ahmadinejad and the Iranian Delegation during the 64th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) scheduled to begin in New York City on September 15, 2009.
“We call on the Grand Hyatt Hotel, the InterContinental Hotel and all New York area hotels to refuse to host and house President Ahmadinejad and the Iranian delegation during the upcoming UNGA,” said Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, President of UANI. “These hotels must join the international community in condemnation of Iran’s illicit nuclear program and for its brutal repression of the Iranian people. If President Ahmadinejad comes to the UNGA he should stay in the Iranian Mission to the UN as a testament to his international isolation and responsible entities should decline to host the Iranian delegation.”
It has been reported that the Grand Hyatt Hotel and the InterContinental Hotel have done business in recent years with the Iranian regime. Because of their business dealings with the Iranian government UANI has included the Grand Hyatt and the InterContinental in the UANI Iran Business Registry (IBR). Please visit
http://unitedagainstnucleariran.com/ibr/industry/hotels for more information.
UANI will work with these companies to ensure that they voluntarily declare themselves to be free of Iranian business by executing a pledge for publication in the Iran Business Registry. Please visit
http://unitedagainstnucleariran.com/ibr for more information.
The events currently unfolding in Iran underscore the brutality of the Iranian regime. The suppression of those who have sought free and democratic elections underscores the thuggish nature of the regime while innocents like Neda Agha-Soltan have been murdered.
Now, more than ever, Iran relies on international companies that do business in Iran to support its fragile economy, its nuclear program and to perpetuate a brutal dictatorial theocracy. UANI urges these hotels to cease any current business with Iran and to forgo any future business with Iran at least until Iran abandons its unlawful nuclear program.
Click here to send a message to these companies
Click here to read the letter sent to the Grand Hyatt
Click here to read the letter sent to Barclay’s InterContinental
Click here to visit UANI’s Iran Business Registry
Click here to receive UANI’s daily news summary Eye on Iran
Click here to contribute to UANI
BACKGROUND
The banquet hall of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in mid-town Manhattan had the feel of an extravagant Persian wedding on Wednesday night. A crowd of over one thousand guests, dressed in formal attire, sat around tightly packed tables munching on Iranian delicacies and chit-chatting casually in Farsi. But the occasion was a dinner hosted by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The guest list, all Iranian-Americans living in the tri-state area, had been drawn up from the database of Iran’s mission to the United Nations and consulate in Washington D.C… Extreme security measures had to be taken so Mr. Ahmadinejad could host his dinner party at the Grand Hyatt that night. Dozens of burly American secret service members, dressed in plain suits with an ear-piece plugged into one ear, swarmed the hotel lobby and the banquet hall standing shoulder to shoulder with Iranian bodyguards. Elevators to the event’s floor were shut down. Uniformed New York City police officers were also present in abundance. Police dogs sniffed around the area and at least 20 police cars lined up outside the hotel, in addition to an ambulance and a fire truck. This was in case of an attack against Mr. Ahmadinejad; one police officer said they had taken shifts securing the hotel all day long.
(Wall Street Journal, My Dinner With Ahmadinejad, Farnaz Fassihi, September 28, 2008)
The invitation was on creamy stationery with fancy calligraphy: The Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran “requests the pleasure” of my company to dine with H.E. Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The dinner is at the Intercontinental Hotel – with names carefully written out at all the place settings around a rectangular table. There are about 50 of us, academics and journalists mostly. There’s Brian Williams across the room, and Christiane Amanpour a few seats down. And at a little after 8pm, on a day when he has already addressed the U.N., the evening after his confrontation at Columbia, a bowing and smiling Mahmoud Ahmadinejad glides into the room. (Time, My Dinner With Ahmadinejad, Richard Stengel, September 26, 2007)
Billed as a dialogue between American church leaders and President Ahmadinejad of Iran, the Religions for Peace event at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Thursday is shaping up as the focal point of this week’s gathering of world leaders in New York City.
(New York Sun, Ahmadinejad Prepares To Steal The Scene, Benny Avni, September 22, 2008)
The warmer tone colored most of the approximately two-hour meeting, held at the Barclay Intercontinental Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Ahmadinejad then hosted a meeting for American religious figures from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim groups, and tonight he will meet with policy watchers and former U.S. officials in a meeting organized by the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. The unusual efforts appear aimed at de-demonizing the hard-line Ahmadinejad’s image in the West, and particularly in the United States, which is leading an effort to seek economic sanctions at the U.N. for Iran’s defiance of a Security Council order to halt the enrichment of uranium.
(US News, Iran’s Ahmadinejad: “Can’t We Just Be Friends?”, Thomas Omestad, September 20, 2006)
