“Iran also has boasted about the U.N. secretary-general’s decision to address the meeting later this week. But pride could turn into embarrassment if Ban uses his appearance as a platform to criticize Tehran over its crackdowns on political dissent — including the house arrests of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi — or push for more access to its nuclear sites for U.N. inspectors.

Already on Tuesday, a U.N. spokesman in New York said Ban would bring up human rights and concerns over the nuclear program on the sidelines of the gathering. “It’s clear that when he goes there he will reiterate his concern that the overall human rights situation in Iran remains critical,” Farhan Haq told reporters.”