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Iranian leader alleges "nuclear apartheid"

Joel Brinkley

U.S. bullying other nations, charges President Ahmadinejad

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad waves after addressing U.N. General Assembly in New York on Saturday. — PHOTO: AP

UNITED NATIONS: In an unyielding address before the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday afternoon, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran rebuffed attempts to rein in his country's nuclear programme, railing against the United States as an aggressor and restating a compromise proposal that had already been rejected.

Nuclear rights

Mr. Ahmadinejad repeatedly stressed that Iran would not relinquish its ``right to pursue peaceful nuclear energy'' and accused the U.S. of bullying others and attempting to divide the world into ``light and dark countries,'' repeatedly clenching his fist and jabbing his finger in the air for emphasis.

U.S. unhappy

American and European officials had been anxiously awaiting Mr. Ahmadinejad's address, hoping it would offer either a solution to end months of standoff or provide ammunition in their drive to send Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible political and economic sanctions because of Iran's attempts to hide the extent of its nuclear programme.

Iran, meanwhile, has maintained that it is not seeking nuclear weapons and has the right to process uranium for nuclear fuel.

Shortly after Mr. Ahmadinejad's speech, a senior Bush administration official said, with an understated air, ``This does not help Iran's case.''

Mr. Ahmadinejad used most of his 29-minute speech to inveigh against the United States and its allies, including accusing Americans of brutalising Iraqis and Afghans and trying to impose a nuclear energy regime in Iran that he called ``apartheid.''

``Every day they are threatening other nations with nuclear weapons, and they are never inspected,'' he said.

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