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UN delegates from the United States, the United Kingdom and France expressed their displeasure with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday by walking out as he addressed a conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Outside on First Avenue, small groups of non-UN protesters braved heavy rain to express their outrage.

“We lost our dignity as Iranians,” said Cyrus Sheres,
29, a contractor from Brooklyn who moved to the United States from Iran
a decade ago. “It’s an insult to us that such a sophisticated
civilization in the world has to have such a brutal, oppressive government that doesn’t really represent Iranians.”

Members of Iranian solidarity group Where Is My Vote wore green — the color associated with opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi
— and called for more attention to be focused on Iranian students,
women’s rights activists and other Iranians who risk their lives by
protesting against the government.

“Unfortunately, what we’ve
seen is a continuous discussion about the nuclear program and virtually
nothing about the human rights condition,” said group co-founder and
attorney Bitta Mostofi of Brooklyn said o... >>>