Iran Claims Nuclear 'Right'

Iran's president on Saturday offered to allow foreign countries and companies to participate in his nation's uranium enrichment program to prove that Iran is not producing nuclear weapons.

In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran has a right to a nuclear fuel program but he stressed that its "religious principles" prevent it from seeking atomic weapons.

The highly anticipated speech was billed as Iran's response to a European demand for Iran to halt uranium enrichment in exchange for a series of incentives.

Ahmadinejad implicitly criticized the United States and the Europeans for "misrepresenting" Iran's desire for a civilian nuclear energy program "as the pursuit of nuclear weapons."

"This is nothing more than a pure propaganda ploy," he said.

Iran has a right to nuclear energy under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, he said, and "the peaceful use of nuclear energy with a fuel cycle is an empty proposition."

To reassure the international community of Iran's peaceful intentions, Ahmadinejad said his government is prepared to take "the most far reaching step outside the requirements of the NPT... in keeping with Iran's inalienable right to have access to a nuclear fuel cycle."

Ahmadinejad's remarks came after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice addressed the General Assembly about Iran's refusal to negotiate with the European Union an end to activities that suggest it is developing nuclear weapons.

"Questions about Iran's nuclear activities remain unanswered, despite repeated efforts" by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, she said. But she deleted from her prepared speech a reference to Iran as a leading supporter of terrorism.

"Secretary of State Rice made clear in her remarks that the U.S. favors a referral of Iran to the Security Council for sanctions if negotiations fail," said CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk from the U.N. "because the Bush Administration suspects that Iran's uranium enrichment program is a nuclear weapons program, but the resistance from Russia and China to vote for sanctions, may undermine a U.S. referral."

Rice also urged the United Nations on Saturday to move boldly to reform the world body so it can be more effective at fighting poverty and terrorism.

"For this institution to become an engine of change in the 21st century it must now change itself," Rice told the opening meeting of the annual U.N. General Assembly special session.

"The United Nations must launch a lasting revolution of reform," she said in prepared remarks for her first U.N. speech.

Rice singled out human rights deficiencies and terrorism as immediate problems to take on. Terrorism is the greatest threat confronting the world, she said.

"No cause, no movement, and no grievance can justify the intentional killing of innocent civilians and noncombatants," Rice said in urging adoption of a sweeping anti-terrorism convention

She rejected arguments raised by some groups that terrorism often exists in the eye of the beholder, and that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

Preceding Rice to the rostrum, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said condemnation must be unqualified and that the 191 countries should "forge a global counterterrorism strategy that weakens terrorists and strengthens the international community."

"We can do it, and we must," Annan said.

Rice's speech reflects a determination by the Bush administration to refashion the U.N., which has fallen far short of completing major changes sought by Annan.

Rice has locked arms with the secretary-general, declaring him an effective manager with whom she can work closely. The speech to the General Assembly conveys their joint effort to update the U.N. beyond the watered-down, 35-page reform document approved Friday.

"I have never had a better relationship with anyone than Kofi Annan," Rice said this week, thereby separating U.S. concerns about management flaws from the world body's top diplomat.

In her speech, Rice called the document a useful first step, but no more than that. The administration seeks, for instance, to exclude countries with poor human rights records from sitting in judgment of other nations. It also wants the secretary-general to have the flexibility to make wholesale changes in personnel.

The U.S. delegation, headed by reform-minded Ambassador John R. Bolton, never reluctant to point out U.N. shortcomings even at the risk of irritating traditional diplomats, is expected to follow up Rice's recommendations with resolutions in the coming weeks.

President George W. Bush, in his speech this week to the U.N., tried to motivate adoption of measures to counter poverty by linking poverty with terrorism. He listed a number of countries that have suffered at the hands of terrorists, and the United States succeeded in deterring moves to exempt national liberation movements from being branded as terrorist groups.

Rice scheduled seven meetings with foreign officials. She has held limited sessions, leaving New York twice during the week to assist Bush in White House meetings.

History's largest gathering of world leaders fell far short of completing the bold changes U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sought to fight poverty, terrorism and human rights abuses — but the leaders took a first step.

At the end of a three-day summit, the leaders on Friday adopted a 35-page document by consensus after Venezuela made a formal reservation. When Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson banged the gavel signifying approval, the leaders burst into applause.

The summit's approval of a modest document, which commits governments to achieving U.N. goals to combat poverty and creates a commission to help move countries from war to peace, came alongside important developments in other areas.

"After a week of acrimonious negotiations, the U.S. agreed to a final statement on terror, poverty and human rights," said Falk from the U.N., "but the real agendas were negotiated behind closed doors, including possible sanctions on Iran for uranium enrichment programs, the future of Iraq, the Haitian elections in November and who will be the next Secretary General after Kofi Annan's term ends in late 2006."

"The advantage of having all the Heads of State in a three-day summit in this General Assembly session was a great advantage over previous U.N. meetings," said Falk, "because of the ability to have so many bilateral meetings."