New York's 42nd Street resembled downtown Baghdad on Tuesday as US authorities laid on major security for a visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Three demonstrations against Ahmadinejad’s presence are scheduled in front of the Hilton Manhattan East Hotel where the Iranian President is staying. They are organized by the “Stand with Us” pro-Israel organization.
Concrete blocks were laid across the street from Ahmadinejad's hotel -- a stone's throw from the UN headquarters. Behind the blocks, a huge refuse truck sprawled across the road in case a suicide bomber or any other attacker could be tempted to try to reach the building.
Security guards lined the streets in preparation for Ahmadinejad's speech to the Millennium Development Goals summit, taking place even as political directors from the six powers leading international efforts against Iran's nuclear drive hold a new meeting to discuss next moves in the atomic showdown.
Ambassadors from the Western powers are expected to walk out when Ahmadinejad speaks.
"It has become a tradition. It is a question of who walks first," said one western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The New York Post tabloid called the president the "reviled, Holocaust-denying leader" in an account of the precautions being taken for Ahmadinejad.
Neither the Iranian mission nor the president's staff at the hotel would comment on the visit.
The Post reported that US secret service agents pulled their guns on one photographer, Jason Nicholas, who cut across police lines to chase Israeli President Shimon Peres in a motorcade as it passed by. Nicholas was released without charge.
The hotel "has been turned into a sealed fortress" with "ramped-up security forces standing guard amid specially installed bulletproof windows, airport-style metal detectors and powerful anti-terror weapons," the Post reported.
"Ahmadinejad has access to a private elevator on his floor, a source said, and everything he touches is supplied by his aides. His rooms' windowpanes were swapped for bullet-proof glass."
While in New York, Ahmadinejad has the same right as the members of Iran's diplomatic mission in the city. They can go anywhere within 25 miles (40 kilometers) of the mission, and Ahmadinejad is certainly taking every opportunity to get his message across.
He has pointedly held several interviews with US media to declare again that Iran is not seeking a nuclear weapon.
Ahmadinejad has stirred international controversy with his calls for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and other fiery declarations.
Each year for his visit to the UN summits, the New York tabloids have a field day calling him a "madman," "idiot" and a "Holocaust-denying, nuke-coveting, terrorist-aiding nut."
The US administration has made it clear there are absolutely no plans for President Barack Obama to have any contact with the Iranian leader in New York this week.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met Ahmadinejad on Sunday and urged him to "engage constructively" with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States to find a negotiated settlement to the nuclear showdown.
The UN Security Council has passed four rounds of sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment and recent UN reports have been increasingly critical of Iran's attitude to international nuclear inspectors.