This could be quite the show

[Skitterpop]

August 30, 2006
Iran's leader wants debate with Bush
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday challenged President Bush to a televised debate, a proposal the White House immediately dismissed as a ''diversion.''
The challenge came during a freewheeling, 2½-hour news conference and only two days before a U.N. Security Council ultimatum demanding Iran roll back its suspect nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad said no one can prevent Iran from pursuing what he called a peaceful nuclear program - not even U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was expected to visit Tehran Saturday.
''Mr. Annan, too, has to move within the framework of international regulations. No one has a special right or advantage,'' he said.
The U.N. Security Council has set tomorrow as a deadline for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment - a process that can produce either fuel for a reactor or material for weapons.
Iran has refused any immediate suspension, calling the deadline illegal, and instead this week offered a counterproposal that the United States and some European nations said fell short.
Ahmadinejad's latest show of defiance seemed to solidify the country's determination to snub the Security Council, following a string of war games and uncompromising public statements this month on the nuclear standoff. But whether the U.S. can muster enough support on the 15-nation council to impose economic or political sanctions remains in question.