U.S. likely to grant Ahmadinejad conference visa

The Obama administration indicated that it would grant a visa to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to attend a United Nations non-proliferation conference.

“We have certain responsibilities as the host of the U.N.,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Wednesday when asked whether the United States would grant the Iranian president his request to attend next week’s conference. “Any foreign official who’s coming to the U.N. for official business is normally granted a visa.”

Iran is a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferations treaty, though the U.N. nuclear watchdog has accumulated substantial evidence that Ahmadeinjad’s regime is in violation of the treaty’s terms.