Ahmedinejad ignores calls to temper discourse

It is his last official visit to the UN General Assembly before his second and final mandate as President runs out in 2013.

And Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is giving all the signs of ignoring diplomats’ warnings to avoid incendiary rhetoric during his address to the General Assembly on Wednesday.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the Iranian President said he did not take Israel’s threat to launch a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities seriously.

He spoke of double standards, claiming that some Security Council members turned a blind eye to certain nuclear programmes, a clear reference to Israel, while the energy programmes of countries like Iran are unjustly impeded.

The US quickly dismissed the comments as “disgusting, offensive and outrageous”, while Israel’s representative described it as an “insult”.

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