Nick Clegg to denounce Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at UN

guardian.co.uk

Deputy PM alters speech after outcry at Iranian president's claim that US orchestrated 9/11 attacks

Nick Clegg will today issue a strong condemnation of the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, telling the UN that his claims, made yesterday, that the US government was behind the 9/11 attacks on New York are "bizarre, offensive and attention-grabbing".

The deputy prime minister has added the comments to a speech he is to due to make to the UN general assembly after an international outcry over Ahmadinejad's comments to the same meeting yesterday.

Ahmadinejad accused the US government of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks to prop up Israel. Speaking just a few miles away from Ground Zero in New York, he prompted a walkout of the US and UK delegations from the chamber. US diplomats dismissed his comments as "abhorrent and delusional".

Clegg will say: "I was ready today to welcome the progress made in this week's meeting of the E3+3 group on Iran. I was ready to straightforwardly reiterate our concerns about Iran's nuclear programme. But instead, once again, an issue of grave global concern has been overshadowed by the bizarre, offensive and attention-grabbing pronouncements by President Ahmedinejad from this podium yesterday. His remarks were intended to distract attention from Iran's obligations and to generate media headlines. They deserve to do neither."

At a time when Iran is being squeezed by sanctions imposed through the UN, Ahmadinejad showed no desire to extend a placatory hand and instead opted to repeat several old conspiracy theories relating to the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. One theory of what happened on that day, he said, was "the US government orchestrated the attack in order to save the Zionist regime in the Middle East".

Addressing representatives of the UN's 192 member countries yesterday, the Iranian president said there was evidence that the US government had at least supported the attacks, including passports in the rubble of the twin towers of men who had been involved with US officials, while no trace of the alleged suicide attackers was retrieved.

Ahmadinejad's 9/11 comments will damage any prospect of a diplomatic way out of the impasse over Iran's nuclear programme.

Earlier, US president Barack Obama had demanded that Iran meet its obligations in international conventions and "confirm to the world the peaceful intent of its nuclear programme".

The Iranian leader said he remained "ready for a dialogue based on respect and justice" and for a "free debate with American statesmen".

But he went on to warn that if the security council of the UN continued to use "intimidation and sanctions", it would destroy its own remaining credibility.

The theory that 9/11 was the act of a US agent provocateur, or even of George Bush himself, has long been one of the most prevalent conspiracy theories relating to the attacks. Ahmadinejad compared the almost 3,000 people who died on 9/11 to the hundreds of thousands who had been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.