Security Council Speech for Iran's President?

March 12, 2007 — -- Iran's firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would like to travel to New York in order to make a presentation to the United Nations Security Council defending his country's nuclear ambitions, according to Iranian state TV.

Responding to reports of Ahmadinejad's intention to visit the United Nations, U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey was skeptical, saying "I'm not sure what purpose that would serve."

The United States and its partners in the so-called P5+1 -- the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany -- allege that Iran's nuclear enrichment program is intended for the creation of nuclear weapons. Iran has denied the claims.

The P5+1 is currently drafting a sanctions resolution punishing Tehran for its failure to comply with previous resolutions demanding that the Islamic republic cease nuclear enrichment. The draft resolution will ratchet up initial sanctions against Iran that were passed in December.

Casey said that the issue remains Iran's noncompliance with U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding Tehran suspend uranium enrichment. If Iran verifiably suspends enrichment, the United States and its P5+1 allies have agreed to begin negotiations with Iran.

According to a senior State Department official, who declined to be further identified in order to speak candidly, such a presentation by the Iranian president would have little impact on the P5+1's pursuit of a sanctions resolution "unless he's suddenly become an expert in plutonium traces and all the other kinds of issues that the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) has put forward and hasn't been able to answer for two and a half years."

"Nothing short of coming to the council to announce that his government has made a decision to fully suspend uranium enrichment activity would have any particular impact," the senior official added.

The United States would be the ones to grant President Ahmadinejad a visa to come to the country if he does decide to make a presentation. Casey told reporters this morning that the United States would then honor its obligations as a U.N. host country, under the U.N. Headquarters Agreement, and grant Ahmadinejad a visa to enter the United States.