Ahmadinejad calls for U.S. to destroy its nuclear arsenal first

Sunday, April 18, 2010; A10

IRAN

Ahmadinejad says U.S. must disarm first

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad drew applause at a nuclear disarmament conference in Tehran attended by representatives of 60 countries when he called for the destruction of all atomic weapons, starting with those in the U.S. arsenal.

The two-day forum, which employed the catchphrase "nuclear energy for all, nuclear weapons for none," came about a week after the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, to which the Islamic republic was not invited. The United States was not invited to the Tehran conference.

Ahmadinejad took particular aim at President Obama's announcement this month of a new U.S. policy that does not rule out the use of nuclear weapons against Iran and North Korea. "Threatening with nuclear weapons only dishonored the American government officials and more fully exposed their inhumane and aggressive policies," Ahmadinejad said.

Taking direct issue with the consensus reached in Washington to take steps to reduce the world's stock of nuclear weapons, Ahmadinejad called for more rigorous action.

He demanded an end to what he called the United States' "blind support" for Israel, which he said has 200 atomic warheads but has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Ahmadinejad also called for veto power for all members of the United Nations, a right now accorded only to the five permanent members of the Security Council.

Talks on nuclear disarmament should henceforth be controlled by states that do not have atomic weapons, Ahmadinejad said, adding, "The involvement of the government of America will prevent any new treaty from being fair."

-- Thomas Erdbrink

Obama has 'no plans' to respond to letter

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to President Obama last month, the White House confirmed Saturday, although neither the United States nor Iran disclosed details about what it said.

"We are not going to get into details on the content of the correspondence at this time," said Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the National Security Council. He added, "We have no plans to respond to the letter because there was nothing to respond to."

The Iranian president also sent an 18-page letter to President George W. Bush in 2006 as the United States was pushing for sanctions. Ahmadinejad posted the text of that letter on his Web site, but Bush did not respond.

Iranian news media have reported that Obama has written at least twice to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

-- Glenn Kessler

KOREAN PENINSULA

North denies sinking South Korean ship

North Korea denied sinking a South Korean warship near their disputed sea border, saying Saturday that the South was "foolishly seeking to link the accident with the North at any cost."

It was North Korea's first official denial of involvement in the March 26 disaster, which killed 38 South Korean sailors and left eight others missing. The denial came a day after South Korean investigators said an "external explosion" probably sank the 1,200-ton Cheonan in the Yellow Sea.

Investigators say they need more time to reach a conclusion about the cause, but their announcement Friday increased speculation that the ship was struck by a North Korean torpedo or collided with a mine.

North Korea's state-controlled news agency quoted a military official as saying that the sinking was the fault of "military warmongers" in South Korea.

-- Blaine Harden

AFGHANISTAN

Karzai appoints election officials

President Hamid Karzai took key steps Saturday toward reforming his country's electoral system, naming a respected former judge as head of Afghanistan's election-organizing body and dropping a bid to keep international representatives off a separate fraud-monitoring team.

The United States and its allies have long demanded the electoral process be cleaned up after fraud in last year's presidential vote.

-- Associated Press