Iran was under diplomatic pressure on Friday after a UN watchdog report said it had expanded its nuclear programme and was hampering inspections, and the leaders of the UN and Egypt criticised its key ally Syria. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in Tehran for a summit, also called on Iran to release "opposition leaders, human rights defenders, journalists and social activists." Iranian officials responded to the International Atomic Energy Agency report by denying allegations it was cleaning up a suspect military base and saying the document's release was timed to steal the spotlight from the Non-Aligned Movement gathering. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opened the two-day NAM summit with a speech on Thursday railing against the United States, Israel and the UN Security Council, which are at the forefront of the pressure directed at his country. He said Iran would "never" cease its nuclear energy activities, regardless of UN and Western sanctions, and insisted that the programme was not aimed at developing nuclear weapons, whose use he called an "unforgivable sin."
