Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu caused a stir at the United Nations Thursday when he waved old construction plans for the infamous Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in an attempt to convince the international community to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons.
"The most urgent challenge facing this body today is to prevent the tyrant of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons," Netanyahu said during his speech, referring to Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The comparison between Iran and the Nazi regime comes days after Ahmadinejad again denied the Holocaust.
At the UN, Netanyahu warned that Iran's nuclear program threatens the whole world, not just Israel.
"Perhaps some of you think (Ahmadinejad) and his odious regime, perhaps they threaten only the Jews. Well, if you think that, you're wrong. You're dead wrong," he said.
Iran continues to deny it is producing nuclear weapons but the country has refused to stop enriching uranium, which can be used to make bombs.
Israel says Iran is a threat because it has a nuclear program, missiles, and its leader frequently talks of Israel's demise.
During his speech, Netanyahu also showed a copy of minutes from a 1942 meeting at Wannsee Lake in Germany, where Nazis formalized plans to kill millions of Jews.
The blueprints to Auschwitz included details for gas chambers and other facilities at a Nazi-run camp in occupied Poland, where three million Jews died during the Second World War.
The U.S., Israel, and other nations say they want to stop any possible nuclear ambitions Iran may have through sanctions.
There has been speculation Israel might launch a military strike against Iran's nuclear sites as it did against an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981.
This week, Netanyahu said again that "all options are on the table" and Israel "reserves the right of self-defence."
Netanyahu met briefly with Prime Minister Stephen Harper before Harper went on to Pittsburgh for the G20 summit.
Canada's delegation walked out of the UN assembly on Wednesday when Ahmadinejad spoke.
Nuclear weapons
Netanyahu's move came after that the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a U.S.-sponsored resolution calling for stepped-up efforts to limit the spread of nuclear weapons and to promote worldwide disarmament.
From its opening paragraph, the resolution makes clear the council's commitment "to seek a safer world for all and to create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons."
It backs the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and calls for the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, two key agreements on nuclear arms control.
The resolution also reaffirms previous sanctions that were imposed on North Korea and Iran for their nuclear activities, but does not call for any new sanctions.
"There is no better way to begin this historic day than to pledge to end nuclear testing," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon before the vote. "The CTBT is a fundamental building block for a world free of nuclear weapons."
U.S. President Barack Obama presided over the meeting, reaffirming that nuclear arms reduction is one of his administration's priorities. It was the first time a U.S president has chaired a meeting of the Security Council, said U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff.
"The historic resolution we just adopted enshrines our shared commitment to a goal of a world without nuclear weapons," Obama said following the vote. "It brings Security Council agreement on a broad framework for action to reduce nuclear dangers as we work toward that goal."
"International law is not an empty promise, and treaties must be enforced," he said. "We will leave this meeting with renewed determination."
The leaders of China and Russia were among those who voted in favour of the resolution, which passed by a 15-0 margin.
After the vote, Ban described the resolution's adoption as a watershed occasion.
"This is a historic moment, a moment offering a fresh start toward a new future," he said.
Major countries that have not signed on to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty include India, Pakistan and Israel. The draft resolution calls on all countries that have not signed the treaty to do so, in order "to achieve its universality at an early date."
Presiding over the UN meeting on Thursday fits with Obama's pledge to support nuclear nonproliferation initiatives. In a speech the U.S. president gave in Prague five months ago, he said he wanted to see "a world without nuclear weapons."
Obama's aides called the adoption of the resolution an endorsement of his nuclear agenda.
Under the Bush administration, the U.S. opposed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. However, Obama plans to court support for the treaty in the U.S. Senate.
With files from The Associated Press
