IRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leaves for U.N. General Assembly amid nuclear tensions

President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad says the United Nations is a good forum for expressing Iran's views amid a standoff with the West over its nuclear ambition. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left for the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly on Sunday (September 23). Iranian officials led by Vice President Parviz Davoudi saw Ahmadinehad off in Tehran's Mehrabad airport. Before his departure, Ahmadinejad, one of the many leaders who will address the annual assembly in New York, said the U.N. was a good forum for expressing Iran's views. "In terms of the world's current developments, the nation of Iran has extremely transparent and logical perspectives. There is an opportunity to display these opinions on an international platform for other nations and decision-makers to take note of," Ahmadinejad told reporters. Ahmadinejad's trip comes the day after Iran told Western powers they would regret any attack against the country over its nuclear activities, and rolled out a display of missiles and other military hardware that underscored the warning. The Islamic Republic put on show medium-range missiles it has said could reach Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf in a parade marking the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war on Saturday (September 22). Iran is embroiled in a standoff with the West over its atomic ambition, which the United States says is to make bombs but which Tehran says is solely for generating electricity. Washington has said it wants a diplomatic resolution to the dispute but has not ruled out military action if that fails.

ITN Source | September 23, 2007

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