UNITED NATIONS, 18 September 2005 — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the UN General Assembly yesterday his country had the inalienable right to produce nuclear fuel and accused the United States of violating global nuclear treaties.
Saying that real sustainable order “can only be realized on the two pillars of justice and spirituality,” Ahmadinejad said the world “is rife with discrimination and poverty... which produces hatred, war and terrorism.”
Noting “terrorism and weapons of mass destruction are two major threats to world peace,” Iran’s president said his country was the “symbol of true democracy” and pledged to actively promote “peace and stability in the region.”
Turning to what he called “the nuclear issue”, he slammed the signatories to the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty who had “transferred to the Zionist regime” the “material, technology and equipment for nuclear weapons”, making it impossible for the Middle East to be a nuclear-free zone.
He said it was necessary to “revitalize the NPT and create an ad hoc committee so that it can combat nuclear weapons and abolish the apartheid in peaceful nuclear technology.”
To provide “the greatest degree of transparency,” Ahmadinejad said, Iran “is prepared to engage in serious partnership with private and public sectors of other countries in the implementation of uranium enrichment program in Iran.”
Speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour hours before his UN speech, Ahmadinejad lashed out against “nuclear apartheid” and suggested his nation might consider taking action to hike oil prices in order to scare off further action from the United States and parts of Europe.
Asked about remarks by some Iranian officials that Iran may provoke a rise in oil prices, he responded, “I think any intelligent, healthy, smart human being should use every resource in order to maintain his or her freedom and independence.”
He added, “I doubt that the leaders of the United States and Europe are that far removed from reality.” He said his nation has the “legal right” to pursue a nuclear energy program, and “I think they’re smarter than denying us this legal right. It is natural, of course, they will use whatever they have in their hand, which is the UN Security Council, and our nation has the means to defend and obtain its own rights.”
But Ahmadinejad does not have final word in government matters in Iran. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has that power. But Ahmadinejad has taken a leading public role, and represents his nation at the General Assembly.
In what has emerged as a showdown, between the US and Iran, US Secretary of State Condoleezza, who gave her maiden speech to the UN earlier in the day, advocated the expansion of the Security Council, an issue omitted from the reform package agreed at the UN World Summit, which ended Friday. The Security Council, she said, must be able to act effectively “when countries like Iran threaten the effectiveness of the global non-proliferation regime.”
