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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that the United States' participation in the latest round of nuclear talks is a step toward recognizing Tehran's right to acquire nuclear technology. A senior diplomat from the U.S. joined envoys from five other world powers in Switzerland at Saturday's talks on Iran's nuclear program. Ahmadinejad told thousands of supporters gathered in the southern Iranian town of Yasouj that U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns spoke politely and in a dignified manner. "It was a step toward recognizing the rights of the Iranian nation, toward justice, toward repairing your image in the world, toward...

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has called the U.S. decision to send a representative to international nuclear talks in Geneva a "positive step." But he reiterated Wednesday that his country will not back down in the face of international pressure to suspend sensitive nuclear activities. Mr. Ahmadinejad vowed Iran will continue to pursue nuclear technology despite the efforts of what he called oppressive powers. In Washington, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Mr. Ahmadinejad's statements continue to isolate the Iranian people from the international community. Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran could face additional sanctions if...

SDEROT, Israel, July 23 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Barack Obama warned in Israel Wednesday a nuclear Iran could lead to nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee told a news conference in Sderot after meetings in Jerusalem with Israeli leaders and in the West Bank with Palestinian officials such a scenario "is our single most important threat, both to Israel and also to the United States."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Iran will not make any concession in the country's nuclear rights, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. Ahmadinejad made the comments in a speech during a visit to the southwestern province of Kohgilouyeh and Boyer Ahmad on Wednesday. "Iran will not allow anybody to make any concession," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying, "I advise them (the West) to be more realistic regarding Iran's position in this issue."

Great photoshop from the americanelephant blog...meet the Messiahs new foreign policy advisor.

QOM, Iran -- Iran's president believes Allah has chosen him to prepare the world for the coming of an Islamic 'savior' called the Mahdi. But before the Mahdi's return, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes there must be global chaos - even if he has to create it himself. Whether it's his belief that Israel should be wiped off the map, denials of the Holocaust, obsession with going nuclear, or support for radical Islamic terrorist groups, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a man on a divine mission. To understand him, and that mission, you have travel to the small dusty village of Jamkaran tucked in...

The drop in prices at the pump can in part be contributed to the high hopes associated with the Iran-U.S. talks in Geneva. In a significant shift in its policy of not engaging in opening talks until Iran ceased its uranium-enrichment program, diplomats from the UN, EU and the U.S. have presented Iran with a freeze-for-freeze offer that provides for no more sanctions against the country in return for Tehran suspending nuclear activities. The Iranian delegation expressed interest in the deal, but it’s unclear whether they are willing to take it or are trying to buy time. That’s a tough...

Gordon Brown to condemn Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Gordon Brown will pledge "unbreakable" support to Israel while launching his strongest attack yet on Iran. The Prime Minister will send a tough message to the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday, warning of imminent sanctions on oil and gas if he does not abandon his nuclear ambitions. In a landmark speech to the Israeli parliament, Mr Brown will say that Mr Ahmadinejad's denial of Israel's right to exist is "totally abhorrent". The European Union has already said it stands ready to push for a block on foreign investment in new Iranian...

Barry O, alert your scheduler!.Via the Jerusalem Post, A-jad is heading to the Big Apple again in September: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tells state television he’ll attend the next UN General Assembly meeting expected to be held in New York in September.Ahmadinejad has attended every annual UN General Assembly meeting since he was elected in 2005. See-Dubya suggested in May that Obama go to Iran to shake hands with A-jad. Now, A-jad can come to Obama! Tea and sympathy in NYC. Go ahead. Take the lead.

TEHERAN - PRESIDENT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has struck a more moderate tone towards the United States ahead of a key meeting on Iran's nuclear drive, saying talks with its arch-enemy were possible in the future. 'It is possible that in the near future talks in different fields will take place with the United States,' the state news agency IRNA quoted Mr Ahmadinejad as saying in an interview with state television late on Monday. Washington broke off relations with Teheran in 1980 in the wake of the Islamic revolution, and ties have remained severed ever since amid increasing acrimony over the controversial...

TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he met two military commanders from US-led forces on his trip to Iraq in March and that they even took souvenir pictures to commemorate the encounter. His claims were published on Saturday in reformist newspapers and the conservative Jomhouri Eslami, which said the comments came in a speech he made over a month ago that was first broadcast by state television late Wednesday. "When I was in Iraq ... I was told that one of the occupying commanders wanted to see me," Ahmadinejad told commanders from the volunteer Basij Militia. "Apparently, he was due...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on state television that he would again go to New York to attend this year's United Nations General Assembly session. It will be Ahmadinejad's third trip to New York since his presidency in August 2005. DEVELOPING...

Iran’s Other Leader by: Rachel Paulk, July 14, 2008 As Iran continues to develop its nuclear facilities and to demonstrate its missile capabilities, foreign policy analysts are scrambling to determine the best American response to the rogue nation’s militaristic threats. None seem to agree on how to best approach the hostile Islamic state because its leaders prove difficult to predict on the escalating nuclear crisis. Karim Sadjadpour, author of the report “Reading Khamenei: The World View of Iran’s Most Powerful Leader,” stated in a lecture at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president said that even before its enemies "get their hands on the trigger" the country's military would cut them off, media said on Sunday, in a growing war of words that has intensified Middle East tension. But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also suggested Iran would consider any proposal by the United States for a U.S. interests section in the Islamic Republic, if it was forthcoming. The two countries have not had diplomatic ties since 1980. Amid the mounting tensions over Iran's nuclear plans, U.S. media have reported that the State Department was considering opening an interests section...

Plagued by optimism/ Like Camus' Oranians, who refused to believe in the plague, we are in grave danger of underestimating Iran Alan Johnson guardian.co.uk, Sunday July 13, 2008

It is quite possible that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad first learnt about sabre-rattling at his father’s blacksmith’s shop in Tehran. Many people now wish that Iran’s president had stuck to his father’s profession, or at least pursued his PhD in traffic management. Instead, the combative leader is giving everyone the heebie-jeebies as he fires off volleys of missiles in a game of brinkmanship. Once again the world’s gaze is fixed in alarm on Ahmadinejad, a tiny, wiry figure with a gaunt face and eyes that do not change expression as he spouts combustive rhetoric. This devotee of football and technology, devout husband...

With or Without Nukes, Iran Is a Mortal Threat Elan Journo Imagine that your neighborhood is overrun by a gang. These brutes are wielding crowbars, knives, and pistols in a frenzied spree of home break-ins and mugging and murder. Now suppose the police reveal that their grand strategy for dealing with this gang is to block them from getting submachine guns--as if without such weapons, the gang would no longer bother people. Would you sleep soundly at night? Or would you be outraged? Of course you would, because this gang--even without more powerful weapons--is already a serious menace that must...

Yesterday Iran launched nine missiles as part of military exercises designed to accomplish the following: Deter military action against its accelerating nuclear program;Undermine the international coalition seeking to dissuade Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon;Intimidate its neighbors; andBoost President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's flagging domestic political support. While the missile display revealed little in the way of new Iranian military capabilities, it underscored the willingness of President Ahmadinejad's belligerent regime to resort to brinksmanship as part of its hostile foreign policy. Iran's missile-rattling provides one more reminder -- if any were needed -- that the United States and its allies need to...

In a recent piece for the Washington Post, Israeli commentator Yossi Melman writes: “No decision to attack Iran has been made in Israel” and it is “a matter of at least one year” before any decision will be made. Melman’s words seem enough to convince the editorial staffs of publications like the Post and the Nation. But sources inside the U.S. intelligence and Defense communities are telling us, there is an increasing “probability” that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) will soon strike Iranian nuclear facilities. The strikes -- if they take place -- will be far more extensive than that...

More than four years after a stunning report about America's vulnerability to a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack was released to Congress, the House Armed Services Committee will hear testimony from the scientist who issued the warning and who believes Iran is pursuing such an option. William R. Graham, President Reagan's top science adviser and the chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, will update the committee Thursday morning. Graham warned in 2005 that Iran was not only covertly developing nuclear weapons, but was already testing ballistic missiles specifically designed to...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday his country would not stop enriching uranium and rejected as "illegitimate" a demand by major powers that it do so, the official IRNA news agency reported. Ahmadinejad's comment came as a British newspaper, quoting intelligence reports received by Western diplomats, reported Monday that Iran has resumed work aimed at producing a nuclear bomb.

Iran has resumed work on making advanced equipment that nuclear experts say is principally used for developing atomic weapons, the The Telegraph reported Monday, citing intelligence reports received by Western diplomats. The British newspaper said that the goal of the work was to develop the blueprint provided by Pakistani scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the so-called father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, who sold Iran information on building atom bombs in the early 1990s. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has established several civilian companies to work on the program, continued the Telegraph , adding that the companies' operations were being...

Iran would "set on fire" Israel and the US navy in the Gulf as its first response to any American attack over its nuclear programme, an aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Tuesday. "The first US shot on Iran would set the United States' vital interests in the world on fire," said Ali Shirazi, a mid-ranking cleric who is Khamenei's representative to the naval forces of the elite Revolutionary Guards.

Since the mid-seventies, the Strait of Hormuz has been considered a major political commodity in the region. The Shah of Iran [Mohammad Reza Pahlavi] used to refer to himself as the region’s police officer so that he may discipline the socialist Iraq and he also used to pledge to protect oil tankers against any terrorist threats. However, after he was ousted by [Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini’s revolution and Tehran’s policy began to threaten with blocking the strait, the Iranian ‘police officer’ departed and was replaced by Western troops. The Gulf peninsula has become the area most congested with battleships and nonstop...

Nearer to the Bomb July 07, 2008 International Herald Tribune Peter D. Zimmerman The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency said last month that there was no danger that we would wake up one morning to find Iran the next nuclear power. He said that Iran would first have to leave the Nonproliferation Treaty, evict the IAEA's inspectors, "and then it would need at least ... six months to one year." That puts an Iranian nuclear capability well into the future, next year. Mohammed ElBaradei's comments came after Israel conducted a military exercise in which its warplanes flew...

The US did not okay an Israeli attack on Iran, Prof. Anthony H. Cordesman, a former Pentagon official and currently the top defense analyst at the ABC TV network, said Monday. Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen. [file] Photo: AP Slideshow: Pictures of the week Cordesman was speaking during a meeting with Israeli defense analysts held by the Institute of National Security Studies. He said IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi was notified of the United States' stance regarding Iran by Admiral Michael Mullen, the top uniformed US Army officer, during Mullen's visit here at the end...

UPDATED: War clouds continue to build in the epicenter. Last month in Rome, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed that the United States and Israel would soon be "annihilated," language he had not used so explicitly since October 2005 when he promised to wipe Israel "off the map" and urged Muslims to "envision a world without the United States." This week, his regime authorized a new series of Iranian war games. He ordered the digging of 320,000 graves to bury the enemies of Islam. He is calling for the unification of the Islamic world politically and economically, including the creation of...

Intelligence information received by Western diplomats reports that Iran has resumed building equipment used for constructing atomic weapons. According to the London-based Daily Telegraph, the latest intelligence indicates that the work is aimed at developing a bomb according to a blueprint provided by Pakistani scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of the Pakistanian nuclear program who sold information on building atom bombs to Iran in the early 1990s. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, along with senior officials from its Atomic Energy Agency, is reportedly directing the clandestine project that has been concealed from United Nation’s inspection teams. Iran, the world's fourth-biggest oil...

Malaysia-D8-Ahmadinejad President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by saying that the world is changing rapidly stressed the US hegemony over the world is coming to its end. President Ahmadinejad who is in Malaysia to attend the 6th summit meeting of the D8 Group, told a group of Malaysian parliament members here Monday evening that the US hegemony is collapsing tactically and theoretically, so it is necessary to get prepared for the period afterward. He added, "Nowadays, all people hate the US, so its dominance is coming to a dead end." The Malaysian parliament deputies by expressing pleasure with meeting President Ahmadinejad called for...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday downplayed the threat of an attack on his country by the United States, saying it would be "political suicide" for US President George W. Bush. He also said that the Iranian people stood ready to defend their country in the event of any attempt to close down the nation's nuclear programme. "Any finger that will trigger the bullet, the Iranian people will cut it," he told a press conference at the D8 summit of developing nations.

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday discussed progress on a nuclear power plant Russia is building in Iran, a statement from Putin's office said. 'Both sides underlined the need for timely construction of the atomic power station at Bushehr,' the statement said. They also discussed cooperation in the transport and arms sectors, the statement said.

The US and Israel would not dare attack Iran, said Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an interview to Malaysian media on Monday. According to IRNA, the Iranian president arrived in Kuala Lumpur earlier in the day to attend the sixth Summit of the Eight Islamic Developing Countries (D8) where he is expected to deliver a speech on Tuesday.

Iran-Venezuela-Chavez Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stressed on Sunday that his people support their Iranian brothers. President Chavez made the remark in a meeting with Iranian Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance for Press Affairs, Ali-Reza Malekian held on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Conveying his warm greetings for his Iranian counterpart, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Venezuelan president expressed hope that he would visit the Islamic Republic in the near future. For his part, the Iranian envoy said Tehran supports Venezuela's constructive proposals regarding establishment of NAM TV network and efforts for free exchange...

I'm trying to figure out of the dark figure to the left of the Iranian president is his wife, or one of those "shadow people" that I keep reading about on the paranormal websites......

Iran orders paper director's arrest for 'insulting' president Jul 1, 2008 TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's judiciary on Tuesday ordered the arrest of the director of a leading reformist newspaper over an article attacking President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his remarks on the Shiites' "hidden imam." Mohammad Javad Haghshenas, director of Etemad Melli newspaper, has been issued with an order for arrest and investigation on charges of spreading lies and publishing "an insulting piece", a spokesman for Tehran public and revolutionary courts told the ISNA student agency. The spokesman said the "insulting" article was written by mid-ranking cleric Rasoul Montajab-Nia in Tuesday's...

<p>Foes of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tried to kill the hard-line leader with X-ray radiation during his recent visit to Italy, Iran’s former ambassador to Rome told Russian news service RIA Novosti on Monday.</p> <p>Ex-ambassador Abolfazi Zohrevand said the rising concentration of high-intensity radiation at Ahmadinejad’s temporary residence in Rome earlier this month led to the claims.</p>

Miss Ahmedinejad's face and name are not known and thre are very few pictures of her. We only know she's an engineer but was forced to stop working because of islam. She now lives in shadow with her three children and is only occasionaly allowed to go out of her house.

TEHRAN, June 30 (RIA Novosti) - Enemies of Iran attempted to kill President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with high-intensity X-ray radiation during his recent trip to Italy, Iran's former ambassador in Rome said on Monday. Ahmadinejad attended a global summit on food at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's Rome headquarters in early June. "On the eve of the [Iranian] president's visit to Rome, we checked the radiation levels in his temporary residence," Abolfazi Zohrevand told Iran's IRNA news agency. "We found out that the radiation was higher than normal and its intensity was rapidly increasing," he said, adding that several devices...

Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejeii on Sunday said his ministry was informed of a U.S. plot to kidnap President Mahmud Ahmadinejad during his trip to Iraq in March. “The Intelligence Ministry was unaware of the plan to kidnap the president before he traveled to Iraq. We were informed of the plot when the president was staying in Iraq and finally… by taking some security measures, the U.S. plan was aborted,” Ejeii told reporters. Earlier this month, Ahmadinejad said the enemies had planned to kidnap and kill him in Iraq but the plot was foiled after the Iranian delegation changed their...

Hugo Chavez faces political crisis as allies desert him By David Blair in Caracas Last Updated: 9:24PM BST 29/06/2008 President Hugo Chavez, the "socialist revolutionary" leading a global campaign against America's "empire", is facing a political crisis in Venezuela where crucial elections are approaching and old allies have turned against him. Mr Chavez has given Caracas's slum-dwellers free health care for the first time Mr Chavez, a devoted admirer of Fidel Castro, has forged an anti-American front with leaders ranging from President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. At home, however, Mr Chavez is in trouble....

American School Books Redefine 'Jihad' to Exclude Violence -- Where is Media? By Warner Todd Huston | June 8, 2008 - 21:49 ET In yet another example of why the west could be too weak to fight the sort of global terrorism that takes the form of Islamofascism, a textbook monitoring group is charging that American textbooks have been cleansed of mentioning the violence inherent in the Islamic "Jihad." Now, our children will not be taught what "Jihad" truly means, nor that it has been used as an excuse to kill their fellow citizens because our schools have sanitized Islam...

"In the nuclear issue, the bullying powers have used up all their capabilities but could not break the will of the Iranian nation." -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad People never like to say that our enemies are right. We would much rather lampoon, mock, and/or ignore anyone who disagrees with us (just navigate the blogosphere for awhile). As fun as that might be, it gets us nowhere in the discovery of practical answers to real problems. A wise man or woman will recognize the truth no matter where it comes from, even the mouth of an opponent. That said, I...

Over the past several years, Iranian leaders - most prominently, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - have made numerous statements calling for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people. Some of these statements have been interpreted by certain journalists and experts on Iran to be simple expressions of dissatisfaction with the Israeli presence in the West Bank or eastern Jerusalem, or with the current Israeli government and its policies. Juan Cole of the University of Michigan argues that Ahmadinejad was not calling for the destruction of Israel, saying, "Ahmadinejad did not say he was going to wipe Israel off the...

Iran's Ahmadinejad charges US with assassination plot Jun 19, 2008 Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday charged the United States with an assassination plot against him, Fars news agency reported. 'According to reliable information, as I rejected to reside in the green zone during my trip to Iraq, the Americans had planned to kidnap and kill this humble servant of the nation,' Ahmadinejad told clergy circles in a meeting in the religious city of Qom in central Iran. 'The plot was neutralized due to a last-minute change of our schedule,' Ahmadinejad added, without however elaborating how Iran gained...

Khatami may challenge Ahmadinejad Tehran • Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami is considering opposing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in next year's presidential elections, Fars news agency reported yesterday. Khatami has sent a letter to renowned political personalities in Iran asking them to make an assessment whether he should run in next June's elections, Fars reported. There has been no reaction yet by Khatami himself to the report. The 64-year-old Khatami was president from 1997 to 2005 and initiated the reform wave in the country under the motto "dialogue among civilizations." His vision of an Islamic democracy however failed due to resistance by...

The current high price of oil is artificial and the market is well supplied with crude, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday, pinning the blame on the sliding dollar. "The rise in consumption is lower than the rise in production," Ahmadinejad told a meeting in the city of Isfahan of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC's) fund for international development. "The market is well supplied but prices are rising and this situation is artificial and imposed" by world powers. Ahmadinejad, who is president of OPEC's number two producer, has repeatedly said that the current high price of oil...

What drives Ahmadinejad? Iranian president wants to set stage for appearance of Shiite messiahBy Jonathan Halevi and Ashley Perry Published: 06.17.08, 00:43 Shiite Iran is striving to attain the position of regional superpower en route to becoming a significant nuclear power on the international stage. Iran openly challenges the West in its attempt to eject the Americans and British from Iraq and attain hegemony in the Persian Gulf region, supported among other, by its military program, massively built up in recent years. The Iranian leadership talks of a “New Middle East” in response to the West, which would be an...

Ahmadinejad Was Not Mistranslated What Iranian Leaders Really Say about Doing Away with Israel: A Refutation of the Campaign to Excuse Ahmadinejad’s Incitement to Genocide

Commentary: Iraq ripe for Iranian domination Richard Beeston, Foreign Editor of The Times Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was right to look smug at the end of his two-day state visit to Iraq. Not only did he become the first Iranian president to visit Baghdad, but he also took a big step towards achieving the victory that had eluded Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of the Iranian revolution.