Iran's Virulent Speech against the West

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the opportunity of delivering a speech at the United Nations General Assembly meeting on Tuesday, in order to launch aggressive accusations against the Western world and the international body itself, challenging the authority of the Security Council, whose veto-holding members, especially the US and the UK, "commit aggression, occupation and violation of international law".

In addition to this, he blamed the West for manipulating the Council in order to achieve its own objectives, among which the military offensives in Iraq and Lebanon: "The abuse of the Security Council, as an instrument of threat and coercion, is indeed a source of grave concern".

Ahmadinejad addressed the General Assembly, where the seats of both the US and Israeli delegations were empty, pointing to the fact that it may represent the Security Council's last chance for salvation, and proposed that the Non-Aligned Movement, Africa and the Organization of the Islamic Conference should each appoint a veto-holding member in the Security Council, in order to perform a balance of power-inclined design of the body and make it more democratic.

Moreover, Ahmadinejad approached one of the core international issues at the moment, his country's standoff regarding the uranium enrichment nuclear program, by asserting that the United Nations does not possess any right to impose economic or technology-related restrictions on Iran over what he labeled as his state's "transparent, peaceful" nuclear objective, given that other world leaders "proudly announce their production of second and third generation weapons".

However, he failed to address any of the latest strings of events concerning the ongoing efforts to restart nuclear negotiations between his country and other European key players, which many labeled as a sign that Iran would not follow North Korea's example and abandon all international discussions.