UN’s Ban Ki-moon to attend Tehran summit despite protests

UNITED NATIONS – UN leader Ban Ki-moon will attend a Non-Aligned summit in Tehran next week despite protests by Israel and calls by the United States to stay away from the event, a UN spokesman said Wednesday.

Ban will “convey the clear concerns and expectations of the international community” on Iran’s nuclear program, terrorism, human rights and the Syria war, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Ban earlier this month he would be making “a big mistake” if he attended the summit in Iran.

US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, also advised Ban against going, diplomats said. US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said it would be “strange” for Ban to attend the summit.

Iran is at the center of a showdown with the international community over its nuclear drive, has been accused of providing arms to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and has also been condemned for inflammatory remarks by its leaders calling Israel a “cancerous tumor”.

Ban’s spokesman rebuffed the criticism, however. – Agence France Presse