Analysis: Iran's Leader Makes the Rounds
Council on Foreign Relations
September 21, 2006
Prepared by: Robert McMahon
For the president of a state the United States has sought to isolate and sanction, it has been a fruitful week for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian president used his opening day address at the UN General Assembly to reassert his country’s right to develop “peaceful nuclear technology.” He sought to focus attention on the failings of the UN Security Council (PDF), which he said has been abused by the United States and Britain, among other powers. He pressed this and other points in a string of interviews with such U.S. media bastions as TIME magazine, CNN, and NBC, and in an exchange with senior members of the Council on Foreign Relations. Having been rebuffed by U.S. officials, the New York Times opined: “Mr. Ahmadinijad had a Plan B."
Washington has refused direct meetings with Iranian representatives until Tehran—with whom it has no diplomatic relations—has verifiably suspended uranium enrichment. President Bush on Tuesday repeated U.S. concerns that Iran is illicitly developing nuclear weapons, telling Iranian people from the UN podium their leaders were also using the country’s resources to “fund terrorism and fuel extremism.” A mid-summer UN Security Council resolution called on Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program or face the threat of sanctions.
But an August 31 UN deadline lapsed with no action. Key Security Council members have now agreed to create a new deadline for uranium enrichment suspension in early October, the fourth such deadline in four months (WashPost).
Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.
Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
