An influential security group with White House connections is campaigning to stop a posh New York hotel from hosting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is scheduled to address the United Nations later this month, The NY Post reports.

United Against Nuclear Iran — a bipartisan group whose founders include Obama special Afghanistan envoy Richard Holbrooke and Middle East aide Dennis Ross — says the InterContinental The Barclay New York hotel is housing Ahmadinejad and the Iran delegation during the 64th UN General Assembly beginning next Tuesday.

The group said businesses in New York shouldn’t be taking “blood money” from an evil leader who sponsors terrorism, seeks nuclear arms, and dreams of destroying Israel.

“United Against Nuclear Iran has learned that the InterContinental The Barclay New York has agreed to host President Ahmadinejad and the Iranian delegation [during the UN visit],” UANI President Mark Wallace wrote in a stinging Sept. 4 letter to Barclay New York general manager Leland Lewis, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.

“By accommodating the Iranian delegation, the InterContinental not only endorses President Ahmadinejad’s election, but also turns a blind eye to the regime’s flagrant violations of human rights and its commitment to illegally developing nuclear weapons,” Wallace wrote.

“I ask you to consider whether the profits for short-term economic gains to be made by hosting the Iranian delegation outweigh the grave implications of supporting a terrorist state,” added Wallace, who previously worked for the American Mission to the United Nations and the Department of Homeland Security under George W. Bush.

He urged the hotel, located on East 48th Street between Lexington and Park avenues, to refuse to host Ahmadinejad and “join the international community in condemning Iran’s illegal nuclear weapons program and its disregard for human rights.”

The Barclay hosted Ahmadinejad during a prior UN visit, as has The Grand Hyatt.

(Source: NY Post)