"Irão exibe poder militar" in Guardian, 22 de Setembro de 2007

The Iranian president was talking on the eve of his departure from Tehran, amid a storm of opposition to his visit to New York and growing international alarm over his country's nuclear ambitions. He is poised to deliver a defiant address to the UN General Assembly this week.
The Iranian military showed off a new long-range ballistic missile called the Ghadr - Farsi for 'power'. In a speech marking the event, Ahmadinejad shrugged off US and regional concerns about Iran's more assertive role, saying: 'Iran is an influential power in the region and the world should know that this power has always served peace, stability, brotherhood and justice.'

But with the Iranian leader expected to arrive in New York on Sunday for the annual meeting of the 192-member assembly, diplomats said his visit was likely to raise the temperature further surrounding international moves to curb Iran's nuclear enrichment programme.
Members of the UN Security Council have been informally consulting on the possibility of a new and tougher resolution in the wake of the Iranians' refusal to abandon its uranium-enrichment.

Last week, the French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner warned the Iranians that if diplomatic efforts failed to halt Iran from becoming a nuclear power, war was a possibility.

Speaking to The Observer, the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, played down that prospect, and interpreted Kouchner's remarks as a move to convey to Iran 'the depth of feelings' about 'the dangers of setting off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.'

He said both Britain and its EU allies were '100 per cent committed to a diplomatic solution.' But when asked whether he thought the issue 'will be solved by diplomatic means,' he stopped short of saying yes. He replied instead: 'I think it can be solved by diplomatic means.'

Ahmadinejad's visit has already sparked bitter opposition in New York.

He has been forced to cancel plans to 'pay respects to the American nation' at the 'Ground Zero' site of the September 11 terror attack on the World Trade Center amid protests from relatives of some of the victims.

On Friday, the president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, overruled its School of International and Public Affairs and rescinded an invitation for Ahmadinejad to speak at its World Leader's Forum. The invitation had prompted widespread criticism in the light of Ahmadinejad's remarks calling for Israel's destruction and questioning the facts of the Nazi Holocaust.

Bollinger said the school could still have Ahmadinejad speak to faculty and students in a less formal and high-profile forum, but there appeared no immediate plans to revive the invitation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2174956,00.html
JPTF 22/09/2007