UN General Assembly Draws Friends and Foes

Ahmadinejad, Chavez will be in attendance.

ByABC News
September 21, 2007, 10:16 AM

Sept. 21, 2007 — -- Starting next week, thousands of diplomats from around the world will congregate in New York City for the U.N. General Assembly meetings, clogging streets with motorcades and security teams.

A chance for international leaders to meet and greet with other countries and make their views known before the world body, the global platform is frequently too good to pass up for some leaders, specifically those who use the U.N. lectern to preach anti-American gospel.

As U.N. host, the U.S. government is obligated to allow leaders from all U.N. member countries to attend the event, including those from countries hostile to the United States.

Last year, while Irani President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made headlines with his controversial attendance despite heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran over Iran's nuclear program, it was Venezuela's Hugo Chavez who stole the spotlight.

Chavez referred to President Bush as "the devil" and accused him of speaking "as if he owned the world."

"As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world. An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: 'The Devil's Recipe.'"

This year Ahmadinejad and Chavez will both be back, as will Chavez's foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro.

No stranger to international political theater, Maduro created his own drama last year when he purchased one-way tickets to Venezuela in cash on the day of travel. The move raised red flags for security officials who automatically asked Maduro to pass through additional screening. Maduro, who had not shown the diplomatic passport that would have exempt him from additional screening, immediately alleged that he was being detained and abused.

A top American diplomat went to JFK airport to personally apologize.

So far Ahmadinejad has already inflamed public opinion in the United States with his intention to visit the site where the World Trade Center buildings collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001.