Ahmadinejad slams Ban's 'biased' stance

The Iranian president has voiced concern about the UN chief's 'biased' remarks on Tehran's nuclear work and urged him to take the IAEA's opinion into account.

"We expect the UN secretary-general to maintain his independence by paying attention to the judgments of the [International Atomic Energy] Agency… instead of echoing comments made by three Western states," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a Tuesday statement.

"It is astonishing how Iran has come under unfair attacks instead of being praised for going even further than its commitments and demonstrating a great deal of clarity," he added, in the statement that was released by Iran's UN mission.

Ahmadinejad pointed out that the construction of Iran's Fordu nuclear facility was 'fully in line with the safeguards agreement and the IAEA regulations'.

The president said Tehran notified the Agency that it was constructing the plant a year earlier than it was obliged to do so, based on document 153 of IAEA regulations.

Last week, Iran sent a letter to the UN nuclear watchdog informing the body of construction work at the Fordu site, situated to the southwest of Tehran. The clarification, however, was not welcomed by some Western officials.

Following a Friday meeting with Ahmadinejad, UN secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also chose to echo the negative comments about Iran's announcement and said that he had 'grave concerns' about the under construction plant.

He also asked Tehran to implement the UN Security Council resolutions, which ban Iran the legitimate right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Ban also said that he was concerned about 'the human rights situation in Iran'.

In his rebuttal, Ahmadinejad urged the UN chief to pressure Washington and its allies into abandoning their military strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan, stressing that it is the UN's responsibility to protect the lives of civilians in the two war-torn countries.

The Iranian president also touched upon the UN's 'biased' attitude toward the Israeli-Palestinian issue and said that the international body must not allow Tel Aviv to trample the rights of Palestinians by 'using the Holocaust as an excuse'.

Ahmadinejad also said that he had received no answer from the secretary-general in response to his questions about the United Nation's 'failure to stop repeated human rights violations' and Ban's 'discriminatory attitude'.

In a Tuesday press conference that was held after the release of the Iranian president's statement, Ban pretty much repeated his previous comments about the meeting and did not address the points raised by Ahmadinejad in his statement.