President Of Iran To Speak At U.N.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will address a United Nations conference in New York next month that is reviewing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which the U.S. and other nations say Iran is violating in its apparent pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley confirmed that Washington has “responsibilities as the host country” of the U.N. to grant the Iranian president a visa. Mr. Ahmadinejad has visited New York several times in recent years on a U.S. visa to address the General Assembly’s annual general debate.

The U.S. has in the past granted visas to leaders it considered controversial, such as Fidel Castro and Yasser Arafat.

In 2007, the Iranian president made a controversial speech at Columbia University during which he said no homosexuals lived in Iran.

During that visit, he was denied permission by U.S. authorities to visit Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.

Mr. Ahmadinejad is likely to argue in his address that Iran is permitted under the terms of the nuclear treaty to pursue peaceful nuclear energy.

The U.S. will seek to isolate Iran and is trying to get Russia and China to agree to a new round of sanctions at the U.N. Security Council and force Iran to stop enriching uranium. Moscow and Beijing have previously agreed to three rounds of sanctions.