Ahmadinejad: Iran’s nuclear issue is ‘closed’

Nicaragua leader chastises U.S.
Iran was not without allies. Nicaragua’s leftist President Daniel Ortega angrily chastised the U.S. for seeking to stop other countries from enriching uranium, which is allowed under the Nonproliferation Treaty.

Ortega said the United States, as “the only country in the world to have dropped nuclear bombs on innocent people,” had no right to question the right of Iran and North Korea to pursue nuclear technology for “peaceful purposes.”

Earlier in the assembly’s opening session, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pledged to push for lasting peace in the Middle East and an end to the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region in the coming year, calling it one of the most challenging in the U.N.’s history.

Bush spoke next and announced new sanctions against Myanmar’s military dictatorship, accusing it of imposing “a 19-year reign of fear” that denies basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship. But Bush barely mentioned Iran, a nation he also accuses of helping insurgents who are killing U.S. troops in Iraq.

Amadinejad, whose speech at Columbia University on Monday provoked protests, was in the General Assembly chamber for Bush’s speech. A U.N. diplomat in the chamber said the Iranian president listened to the secretary-general but pulled out his earpiece before Bush started to speak.

Asked about the protests and tough questions he faced at Columbia, Ahmadinejad told a press conference late Tuesday that he didn’t find it to be difficult.

“I speak of my opinions and say what I need to say and others speak of theirs. After all, we are patient enough to listen to what even groups that are hostile to us say.”

Veiled criticisms against U.S., Israel
In his General Assembly speech, the Iranian leader lashed out at “certain powers” — an apparent reference to the United States and Israel — that violate human rights by setting up secret prisons, abducting people, holding trials and enacting secret punishments without any regard to due process, tapping phone conversations and intercepting people’s private mail.

“They use various pretexts to occupy sovereign states and cause insecurity and division, and then use the prevailing situation as an excuse to continue their occupation,” the Iranian president said.

He then described how the Palestinian and Iraqi peoples have suffered under occupying forces. Referring to the U.S. government’s policy on Iraq, he said: “They even oppose the constitution, National Assembly and the government established by the vote of the people, while they do not even have the courage to declare their defeat and exit Iraq.”

“In their view, human rights are tantamount to profits for their companies and friends. The rights and dignity of American people are also being sacrificed for the selfish desires of those holding power,” he told the assembly.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News that Ahmadinejad should not have been invited to address the General Assembly.

“Ahmadinejad is expanding a fanatic doctrine of genocide. He is developing nuclear weapons to achieve it,” he said.

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