Palin meets several world leaders

Irish Times

MARY FITZGERALD

REPUBLICAN VICE-PRESIDENTIAL candidate Sarah Palin made her first foray on to the international stage yesterday, meeting world leaders on the margins of the UN general assembly.

The Alaskan governor, who has been derided by Democrats for her lack of foreign policy credentials, is in New York for something of a crash course in international affairs. In a bid to counter criticism that their candidate, who got her first passport only last year, is too inexperienced in foreign policy to serve a “heartbeat” away from the presidency, Republican Party officials have crammed her diary this week with appointments to meet at least seven presidents and prime ministers, most of them key US allies.

Observers and diplomats have examined Mrs Palin’s list of engagements for clues as to how a McCain-Palin administration would approach and prioritise foreign policy. Her diary yesterday included meetings with Colombian president Alvaro Uribe and Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

She was also due to sit down with former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger. Today Mrs Palin is due to hold talks with Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili and Ukraine’s president Viktor Yuschenko. She is also scheduled to meet Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, Pakistan’s new president Asif Ali Zardari and Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh.

The Alaskan governor was also due to join John McCain for talks with U2 frontman and activist Bono on the sidelines of the general assembly. Diplomats have noted that Mrs Palin’s diary this week does not include appointments with any European leader.

On Monday The New York Sun published a speech Mrs Palin had planned to make at a rally against Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Her invitation was later withdrawn after Hillary Clinton cancelled an appearance at the same demonstration complaining that Mrs Palin’s presence would have politicised the event. In the speech transcript, Mrs Palin called for measures including “truly tough” UN sanctions against Iran. Mr Ahmadinejad, she said, “must be stopped”.

Mrs Palin’s engagements with world leaders this week are intended to bolster her credentials ahead of her first face-to-face debate with Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joseph Biden – a noted foreign policy expert – on October 2nd.

© 2008 The Irish Times

Palin on Ahmadinejad: 'He Must Be Stopped'

ROBYN BECK / 2008 AFP

Governor Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, was scheduled to speak today at a rally in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza to protest the appearance here of President Ahmadinejad of Iran. Her appearance was canceled by rally organizers who sought a nonpolitical event. Following are the remarks Mrs. Palin would have given:


by Sarah Palin


***

I am honored to be with you and with leaders from across this great country — leaders from different faiths and political parties united in a single voice of outrage.

Tomorrow, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will come to New York — to the heart of what he calls the Great Satan — and speak freely in this, a country whose demise he has called for.

Ahmadinejad may choose his words carefully, but underneath all of the rhetoric is an agenda that threatens all who seek a safer and freer world. We gather here today to highlight the Iranian dictator's intentions and to call for action to thwart him.

He must be stopped.

The world must awake to the threat this man poses to all of us. Ahmadinejad denies that the Holocaust ever took place. He dreams of being an agent in a "Final Solution" — the elimination of the Jewish people. He has called Israel a "stinking corpse" that is "on its way to annihilation." Such talk cannot be dismissed as the ravings of a madman — not when Iran just this summer tested long-range Shahab-3 missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv, not when the Iranian nuclear program is nearing completion, and not when Iran sponsors terrorists that threaten and kill innocent people around the world.

The Iranian government wants nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that Iran is running at least 3,800 centrifuges and that its uranium enrichment capacity is rapidly improving. According to news reports, U.S. intelligence agencies believe the Iranians may have enough nuclear material to produce a bomb within a year.

The world has condemned these activities. The United Nations Security Council has demanded that Iran suspend its illegal nuclear enrichment activities. It has levied three rounds of sanctions. How has Ahmadinejad responded? With the declaration that the "Iranian nation would not retreat one iota" from its nuclear program.

Cont.here:

http://www.nysun.com/opinion/palin-on-ahmadinejad-he-must-be-stopped/86311/