UN chief to see Iran leaders ahead of summit
IRAN: UN chief Ban Ki-moon was to meet Iran's top leaders after
arriving in Tehran on Wednesday on a visit hailed by the Islamic
republic as a diplomatic coup over arch-foes United States and Israel.
But Ban, who was to go on to attend a summit of Non-Aligned Movement
(NAM) states on Thursday and Friday in Tehran, was said to be determined
to use his trip to call for Iran to take "urgent" action over its
disputed nuclear drive and its human rights record. In the meetings
expected with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, Ban will
raise the "clear concerns and expectations of the international
community" regarding "Iran's nuclear programme, terrorism, human rights
and the crisis in Syria," a UN spokesman said.
Although the UN secretary general is a regular attendee at NAM
summits -- which gather 120 developing nations accounting for nearly
two-thirds of the UN member states -- this year both the United States
and Israel criticised his presence.
The US State Department said such a visit "sends a very strange
signal with regard to support for the international order," stressing
that Iran was "in violation of so many of its international obligations
and posing a threat to neighbours." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu earlier this month told Ban he would be making "a big mistake"
if he attended.
With Ban's announcement that he was going regardless, Iran seized on
his visit as a victory over its enemies and a sign it was not so
internationally isolated as the United States has portrayed it. Iran is
engaged in a deepening showdown with the United States and the rest of
the UN Security Council over its disputed nuclear programme. It has also
been threatened with possible air strikes on its nuclear facilities by
Israel. The West fears the programme is aimed at developing a nuclear
weapons break-out capability. Iran denies that, saying its atomic
activities are exclusively peaceful. The UN's nuclear watchdog, the
International Atomic Energy Agency, is expected to release its latest
report on Iran's nuclear programme this week -- perhaps concurrently
with the NAM summit. AFP
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