Iran Defies UNSC.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad on Sept. 19 took his battle with the US right to the heart of the UN, challenging the legitimacy of the UNSC where some of its veto-wielding members - namely the US and UK - "commit aggression, occupation and violation of international law". In a speech to the annual UN General Assembly, he accused the West of exploiting the UNSC for its own ends, including the recent conflict in Lebanon and the invasion of Iraq. He called on the General Assembly to "rescue" the UNSC, proposing that the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the African Union (AU) each appoint a veto-wielding member to the 15-nation group.

With the seats of the US and Israeli delegations empty, Ahmadi-Nejad questioned the right of the UNSC to impose sanctions on Iran over its "transparent, peaceful" nuclear programme when the nuclear powers "proudly announce their production of second and third generation weapons". But he made no reference to the ongoing attempts to restart nuclear talks with the EU3 (France, Germany and the UK) and reiterated Iran's commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), an indication Iran was not about to follow the example of North Korea and abandon international co-operation.

Earlier, President Bush agreed in talks with French President Chirac to put on hold a push for UNSC sanctions against Iran to give the EU3 more time to persuade Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment. Bush set out a series of events which could lead to the US joining high level negotiations with Iran for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution. He said the EU3 would continue to talk to the Iranians so they would verifiably suspend their enrichment and then the US "will come to the table".

The US made the limited concession out of recognition that there was a possibility Iran would agree to suspend its work while negotiations over its whole nuclear programme took place. China and Russia were resisting US efforts to isolate Iran. But Bush indicated he was not letting Iran "stall" for much longer before the US went ahead with graduated sanctions.