DAR AL ISLAM - IRAN: AHMADINEJAD CRITICIZED FOR HIS PLANS TO ATTEND UNSC

Iranian press criticises Ahmadinejad’s plan to attend UN session

TEHERAN - Iranian press on Monday criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s plans to attend a United Nations Security Council meeting to clarify Iran’s position on the international dispute over its nuclear aims.

The news agency Mehr, a fierce supporter of the president, carried an editorial entitled ‘Costly trip to New York’, charging Ahmadinejad’s advisors of not being sufficiently informed about UN mechanisms, and of having probably confused the UN General Assembly with Security Council meetings.

The editorial said that the UN Security Council will not necessarily have a meeting, and even if such a meeting does take place, it could be a closed-door session where the representative of the relevant country on the agenda could at most be present as a silent observer.

Iran might pin its hopes on current UN Security Council chair South Africa, which does not oppose Iran’s civil nuclear programmes, and would therefore allow Iran to voice its standpoints.
‘But several countries had voiced their support for Iran’s nuclear programmes but eventually voted against Iran, probably just after a simple phone call by an American official,’ the editorial said.

The editorial further noted that although Ahmadinejad has branded UN Security Council resolution 1737 - obliging Iran to suspend uranium enrichment - as ‘a piece of torn paper,’ he still planned to go to New York for justifying the programme to the same countries opposing Iran’s nuclear programme.

‘The diplomatic section of the government indeed needs a revision,’ the editorial said.

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