Morsi And Ahmadinejad Speak

The U.N. spotlight for Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and Iran’s Ahmadinejad.  We’ll probe the latest messages from a region on the edge.

From Cairo to Tehran and beyond, a great region of the world is churning.  In New York yesterday at the UN, Egypt’s first-ever democratically-elected leader spoke.  Mohammed Morsi.  In a history as long as Egypt’s, a “first-ever” is a big deal.

Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was there speaking, too.  His last address to the U.N. after years of flame-throwing.  Today, Israel’s Netanyahu and the Palestinian’s Abbas speak.  We’re checking in, on Arab spring, Iran and nukes, red lines, war threats and an arc of change.

This hour, On Point:  we’re listening to a region on edge.
-Tom Ashbrook

Jay Solomon, foreign affairs correspondent for the Wall Street Journal.

Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of London-based al-Quds al-Arabi, an independent, pan-Arab daily newspaper.

Gideon Rose, editor of Foreign Affairs.

Aaron David Miller, public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

CBS News "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered a rambling but relatively toned-down speech at the United Nations Wednesday in which he called the Sept. 11 terror attacks "tragic" but also said that humanity's lives would be "beautiful and pleasant" had U.S. forces not thrown Osama bin Laden's corpse into the sea."

New York Times "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Irangave a subdued speech at the United Nations on Wednesday, sticking largely to spiritual and moral themes, rather than his usual annual broadside lambasting Israel, the lack of peace in the Middle East conflict and international efforts to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program."

Foreign Policy "History is rich with memorable orations delivered by the world's leaders as nations convene to discuss the critical issues of the day. From the impassioned to the provocative to the truly bizarre, here are the 10 most unforgettable remarks to come out of the United Nations general assembly speeches in the last sixty years."