President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke today on Iranian national television about the role of the United Nations in nuclear disarmament. Like with North Korea and India, the United States has attempted to persuade Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment program and to open its plants to international inspection. But unlike these countries Iran remained indifferent to the entreaties. In exchange for Iran's cooperation in suspending its uranium enrichment program, the United States promised to ease economic and diplomatic sanctions it has imposed on Iran for the past decade. Ahmadinejad proudly rejected the proposal responding that Iran is using its nuclear technology solely for energy generation and pointing out the bias existent in the United Nations. He said it is unfair for members of the Security Council to require Non Nuclear Weapon States to dismantle their nuclear programs when they themselves possess nuclear weapons. He also condemned attempts of the United Nations to curb nuclear energy production of smaller nations while closing its eyes to members of the Permanent Five's expansion of atomic arsenals.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brings up valid points. News have been circulating that the United Kingdom plans to spend approximately 3bil pounds on replacing its nuclear supply of warheads. Bound by Freedom of Information Act to release such information to the public, documents implying UK's decision to upgrade its warheads have been released, despite of the assurance of the British Government to the contrary. Such a massive upgrade will require at least 4 decades to complete and comes before a non-proliferation conference scheduled for 2010. Such a long commitment goes starkly out of line with foreign secretary Willam Hauge's recent statements calling countries to take urgent steps to reform and better enforce the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The United States is taking center stage in bringing about suspension of nuclear programs in India and North Korea. The US however possesses the largest number of nuclear weapons: 9,960 nuclear warheads 5,735 of which are considered active, though the United States is bound by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to move towards nuclear disarmament.

In some things President Ahmadinejad got it right: Permanent Five should stop dictating policy and begin developing a global plan on how to create a nuke-free world. This means the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom has to each begin dismantling its nuclear weapons.