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7.48

Several delegates, including the United States and Costa Rica, walk out of the General Assembly Hall when Mr Ahmadinejad alludes to a supposed worldwide Jewish conspiracy. The offending comment: "It is no longer acceptable that a small minority would dominate the politics, economy and culture of major parts of the world by its complicated networks, and establish a new form of slavery, and harm the reputation of other nations, even European nations and the US, to attain its racist ambitions."

7.42

Hillary Clinton said, after the G3+3 meeting, that Iran should recognise it is at a "turning point". She insisted that the six-power statement "clearly references the dual track policy and it clearly references consequences". She underlined that the US was seeking a serious response from Iran on October 1. "We will now await the results of the October 1 meeting and take stock," she said.

7.29

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran began speaking in the UN General Assembly just as the big powers wrapped up a meeting a floor below in the UN basement on what to do about Tehran's nuclear programme. Foreign ministers from the G3+3 — Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia, and the United States — voiced continued "serious concern" about Iran's nuclear plans. As his Chinese and Russian counterparts slipped away to "other meetings", David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, read out an agreed statement flanked by the US, German and French foreign ministers. He emphasised the importance of the six powers' meeting with Iran on October 1. "We expect a serious response from Iran and will decide, in the context of our dual track approach, as a result of the meeting, on our next steps."

The statement did not explicitly mention the six powers' demand that Iran freeze uranium enrichment, but Mr Miliband later insisted that it was implied by the reference to the group's previous proposals.

5.40

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, having just reportedly opened the door in talks with President Obama to further sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, studiously avoided the subject in a dull debut before the UN General Assembly. Mr Medvedev pledged: "Russia will steadily follow the path of verifiable and irreversible reductions in nuclear weapons as an essential element of the 'new start' in our relations with the United States." The only possible veiled reference to Iran came when the Russian leader said his country, as a member of the Middle East Quartet, "supports the efforts aimed at strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation regime in the Middle East", stressing Russia's call for a WMD-free zone in the Middle East, that would presumably include Israel as well as Iran.

4.30

Hu Jintao, President of China, started a speech — which was, inevitably, given China's bid for a place as a superpower — with the assertion that "the world moves further toward multipolarity and economic globalisation". He listed threats, from the economic crisis, poverty, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, traditional organised crime and major diseases, at more length and with a gloomier tone than did Obama.

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