UN General Assembly Draws Friends and Foes

Though his request was denied by the New York Police Department, the firebrand Iranian president still plans to speak at Columbia University on Monday. A city council member has contacted the university president, begging him to cancel the lecture.

Beyond the agreement that, as host, the United States is obligated to allow representatives of U.N. countries to attend the General Assembly, in the case of some — like Iran, Cuba and North Korea — their movements are restricted to a 25-mile radius around the U.N. headquarters.

The U.N. Headquarters Agreement obligations haven't deterred some presidential hopefuls like Republican Fred Thompson from declaring that if he were president he would never allow Ahmadinejad to set foot on American soil.

In the event that a leader is deemed a security threat to the host country, that leader can be denied a visa. This year one of Ahmadinejad's diplomats, Iran's ambassador to the U.N. Mission in Geneva, was not allowed to come to New York because he was identified as one of the students who had taken Americans hostage in 1979 during the diplomatic crisis in Iran.

Not All Will Attend

Some foreign leaders are hesitant to leave their countries to attend the General Assembly meetings; many fear they will be overthrown if they leave the country.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will not attend the meetings, and neither will his prime minister or foreign minister. A spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy in Washington says that the tenuous political situation in Pakistan — weeks away from a contentious presidential election — is the reason that none of the top officials from Islamabad will make the trip.

Their concerns are not without precedent. Last year when former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra came to New York for the U.N. meetings, he was kicked out of power by a Thai military coup.

List of Anti-American Leaders Grows

Ahmadinejad and Chavez won't be the only foreign agitators in attendance. Bolivian President Evo Morales, who drew Washington's ire after he supported legal coca cultivation in the Andean country, plans to attend the meetings.