Israeli PM to address UN General Assembly

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday evening that he will address the United Nations General Assembly next month, according to an official statement.

Netanyahu will arrive in New York on Sep. 27 for a three-day visit, which is expected to include a meeting with US President Barack Obama, though one has yet to be scheduled. Netanyahu's speech will highlight the threat of Iran's nuclear program, the statement said.

It linked the prime minister's decision to address the world body to a speech delivered by Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who earlier in the day accused Israel of "committing crimes" against the Palestinians and its neighbors.

"Even now, after 65 years, the same kind of crimes marks the treatment of Palestinians remaining in the occupied territories by the ferocious Zionist wolves," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Khamenei as saying in a speech inaugurating the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran on Thursday.

"The Zionist regime, which has carried out assassinations and caused conflicts and crimes for decades ... killing people, occupying Arab territories and organizing state terror in the region and in the world, labels the Palestinian people as ' terrorists,'" said Khamenei.

In response to the remarks, Netanyahu said "120 countries heard a blood libel against Israel in Tehran today, and kept silent. This silence must stop. Therefore, I will go to the UN and, in a clear voice, tell the nations of the world the truth about Iran's terror regime, which poses the greatest threat to world peace," according to the statement.