United Nations, New York
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned the United States and Israel as two of the world’s “real” nuclear threats and called for nuclear energy to be shared with all countries in his speech at a major United Nations nuclear non-proliferation conference Monday.
Barely mentioning his own country’s nuclear program – which international experts and Western powers suspect is aimed at producing a nuclear weapon – the controversial Iranian leader hammered at one of his signature themes: that the world’s nuclear powers are determined to “monopolize” nuclear technology as a means of power and domination over the world’s nuclear have-nots.
Declaring that Iran is “a great nation that does not need nuclear bombs for its development and does not need them for its sense of honor,” Mr. Ahmadinejad called on countries “who do see nuclear weapons as a source of power and dignity” to abandon “thinking that belongs to the past and is not valid any more.”
Ahmadinejad was one of the first speakers at the opening session Monday of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference, a once-every-five-years event that seeks to update and strengthen the 40 year-old NPT. The treaty’s 189 signatory countries will be in session throughout the month of May hearing proposals on the NPT’s three pillars: nuclear disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation, and the equitable access to nuclear energy technology… >>>
