Bush accuses Iran, Syria of sponsoring terrorism

UNITED NATIONS: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President George W Bush of the United States on Tuesday launched bitter attacks on each other's governments in scathing speeches at the UN General Assembly.

The Iranian leader defended his country's nuclear programme and said the United States and its British ally used their dominance at the UN Security Council to further their agendas.

Bush accused the leaders of Iran and Syria of sponsoring terrorism and also urged Muslims to disregard "propaganda and conspiracy theories" he blamed for poisoning their view of the United States.

The corridors of the UN headquarters reverberated with news of the coup in Thailand, carried out as Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was in New York for the General Assembly. Thaksin was preparing to fly out on Tuesday night but his destination was unknown.

Ahmadinejad and Bush took their campaigns to the UN General Assembly as they step up diplomatic hostilities over Iran's nuclear programme, which Washington says hides efforts to build a nuclear bomb.

Without naming the United States, Ahmadinejad charged that some governments objecting to the Iran's uranium enrichment "have abused nuclear technology for non-peaceful ends including the production of nuclear bombs" and "some even have a bleak record of using them against humanity."

Ahmadinejad said the United States and Britain had used unrest in Iraq to extend their "occupation" of the country.

Taking aim at Israel, Ahmadinejad accused the Jewish state of being "a constant source of threat and insecurity in the Middle East region."

He said Israel was being used "by some powers as an instrument of division, coercion and pressure on the people of the region." The Iranian president has previously called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".

Iran has ignored UN Security Council demands to end its uranium enrichment and the United States has called for sanctions against Tehran.

But Ahmadinejad accused the United States and Britain of using the Security Council to further their own ends.

He said the two allies "drag" countries they oppose before the UN Security Council and then act as "prosecutor, judge and executioner."

A few hours earlier from the same tribune, Bush accused Ahmadinejad's government of wasting Iran's oil wealth on extremist policies.

Bush said in a message to the Iranian people that they deserve "a society that allows you to fulfill your tremendous potential". 

"The greatest obstacle to this future is that your rulers have chosen to deny you liberty and to use your nation's resources to fund terrorism and fuel extremism and pursue nuclear weapons," said Bush.

In his speech, the US president also demanded action over the Darfur conflict. Bush warned the United Nations that its credibility hinged on whether it would get a UN-led force to Darfur soon, even over Sudan's objections, to end "unspeakable violence" that he termed "genocide."

But other leaders put the focus on the Middle East.

UN chief Kofi Annan, who steps down as secretary general in December after 10 years in the post, and French President Jacques Chirac both made pleas for greater action to end the Middle East conflict.

Annan singled out the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as one of the most important security challenges facing the world.

"As long as the Palestinians live under occupation, exposed to daily frustration and humiliation; and as long as Israelis are blown up in buses or in dance-halls: so long will passions everywhere be inflamed," he said.

He warned that failure by the UN Security Council to end the nearly 60-year-old conflict would lead to declining respect for the United Nations.

Annan was set to attend a meeting of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- here Wednesday. 

The quartet sponsored the roadmap peace plan, which has made next to no progress since its launch in June 2003 and missed its initial deadline of creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel by 2005.

The French president urged the Quartet to organize an international conference to revive moribund Middle East peace efforts.

"In this highly sensitive region where divides meet, the status quo has become unbearable," Chirac said in his address.

"Because the conflict in the Middle East is a threat to global peace and security, the world has no option but to be the guarantor of peace," he added.

He called on the Quartet to quickly begin preparations for a major international conference to set out "the guarantees we are ready to provide to the parties if they can reach an agreement".

Bush said he had directed US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to take steps to help the stalled process along.

Rice will work with "moderate leaders" in the region; help the Palestinians reform their security services, and support Israeli and Palestinian leaders in their negotiations, he said.