President Ahmadinejad, UN Chief Hold Talks In NY

New York, Sept 24, IRNA – Islamic Republic of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the rotating chief of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the sidelines of 67th UN General Assembly annual meeting on Sunday. According to IRNA, President Ahmadinejad and Ban discussed major international issues, including developments in the Middle East. Syria was another major topics discussed between them. President Ahmadinejad as head of NAM discussed the concerns of NAM members with the UN Secretary General. Iran assumed the rotating presidency of NAM for three years during the 16th NAM Summit held in Tehran in late August. “Effective steps should be taken for reforming the structure of UN in order to install a fair and democratic framework at the UN so that UN General Assembly and UN Secretary General will be enabled to fulfill their missions,” he added. Referring to the fact that continuing the status quo in Iran’s nuclear issue does not benefit anyone, President Ahmadinejad said that removing the ambiguities in this regard will surely help to resolving the current stalemate in Iran’s nuclear talks and will help the negotiating sides to more easily achieve results. Commenting on the Zionist regime’s threats against Iran, he pointed out that IR Iran does not believe that the threats should be responded with threats, but these threats should be condemned. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for his part hailed Iran for successful holding of the NAM Summit in August in Tehran. “My meeting with the (Supreme) Leader of the Islamic Revolution (Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei) was a memorable one,” he noted. UN Chief termed Iran as few countries who play a crucial role in resolving the Syrian crises. He noted that the UN special envoy in Syria affairs, Lakhdar Brahimi is willing to cooperate with Iran on forming a contact group for resolving the Syrian crisis. Ban called on Iran to support Brahimi in fulfilling his mission in Syria. The president will also hold talks with high-ranking officials from countries, other UN figures, heads of regional and global organizations, American university professors and students, religious leaders and Iranian nationals residing in the US. President Ahmadinejad arrived in New York on Sunday morning to participate in the 67th session of the UN General Assembly. He is scheduled to address the session and elaborate on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s stance on key international issues. The current visit is President Ahmadinejad’s eighth visit to New York for a UN General Assembly session since he became president for the first time in 2005./end