Iran, US take N-cases to UN
Manhandled
May 3: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brings his nuclear case to New York on Monday, turning a UN treaty conference into a stage for Tehran’s long-running showdown with the Western powers over its uranium enrichment programme.
The only head of state participating, Mr Ahmadinejad was one of Monday’s scheduled kickoff speakers for the monthlong session, to review the workings of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). Departing Tehran on Sunday, the Iranian leader made clear he would assail US-led efforts to impose a new round of UN sanctions on his country for refusing to stop its enrichment programme, which Washington and others contend is meant to produce the nuclear fuel for bombs in violation of Iran’s NPT obligations. “Under the pretext of prevention of nuclear weapons proliferation, they impose heavy pressures on independent countries,” Mr Ahmadinejad complained to reporters.
He is also expected to counter with a denunciation of the US and other nuclear-armed nations for their slow movement toward disarmament. “The atomic bomb has become a tool for bullying, domination and expansionism,” he said on Sunday. US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, following Mr Ahmadinejad to the UN stage later on Monday, suggested over the weekend he was coming to New York “to divert attention and confuse the issue.” “We’re not going to permit Iran to try to change the story from their failure to comply” with the NPT, she said.
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