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Everyone Claims Victory In Iran Election
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared himself the winner of Iran’s presidential election today. However, his challenger Mirhossein Mousavi has also declared himself victorious citing voting irregularities.
Something tells me Ahmadinejad is going to win this thing — unfortunately.
-Chris Jones
Sarkozy Says He Won’t Shake Hands With Ahmadinejad, Iran Outraged
Kudos to French president Nicolas Sarkozy for continuing to keep the pressure on Iran. Sarko has really been a great ally on the Iranian issue and never misses an opportunity to blast Ahmadinejad.
Earlier in the week Sarko said this in a speech:
“it is impossible for me to shake hands with someone who dared to say that Israel should be wiped off the map.”
and this:
“We can not solve this crisis without talking to Iranian leaders,” he said, but added: “I know perfectly well that the Iranian president does not represent Iran, much less the Iranian people.”
“The Iranian people are one of the greatest people of the world, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, cultured and open, but they have the misfortune to be represented today by some of their leaders.”
Both statements have allegedly outraged the Iranian government. Iran’s deputy foreign minister summoned his French counterpart to express anger of the comments. He warned that Sarko’s comments could damage the two countries’ bilateral relations.
The French president’s comments while controversial in wimpy Europe were certainly accurate and very well said. The french president along with British PM Brown deserve a lot of credit for not going all wobbly — to borrow a phrase from Lady Thatcher.
-Chris Jones
(hat tip Weasel Zippers)
IAEA: Iran Increasing Stockpile Of Uranium
A new IAEA report out today says that Iran is rapidly increasing its stockpile of uranium which could be enriched into weapons grade material at any time.
But it gets worse:
The agency says that, as of this month, Tehran had amassed 630kg of low enriched uranium hexafluoride, up from 480kg in late August. Analysts say Iran is enriching uranium at such a pace that, by early next year, it could reach break-out capacity – one step away from producing enough fissile material for a crude nuclear bomb.
“They are moving forward, they are not making diplomatic overtures, they are accumulating low enriched uranium,” said Cliff Kupchan, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, a risk consultancy in Washington. “These guys are committed to their nuclear programme: if we didn’t know that, they just told us again.”
Obama’s first real test as president will be how he handles the Iran nuclear situation. I’m hoping he realizes that Ahmadinejad is not going to give up his weapons program just because he sits across the table from him and yuks it up.
The Iranian regime is not rational and the only thing that is going to stop them besides going to war — is continuing economic pressure from the world community. Britain, France, and our other allies have all expressed concern that Obama is going to muck things up and unilaterally meet with the dictator.
Hopefully, Obama’s campaign promises to meet without preconditions was only rhetoric — but we shall see.
Video: Brian Williams Interviews Ahmadinejad
Ahmadinejad Claims U.S. Tried To Kidnap Him
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the U.S. had plans to kidnap him during his recent trip to Iraq. According to him, the plan was never carried out because of “intentional” last minute changes to his schedule. As a result, the alleged plotters found out about the changes after he was already out of Iraq.
Read Ahmadinejad’s personal blog HERE
Ahmadinejad Casts Doubts About 9/11 Attacks, Death Toll
The crazed lunatic that runs Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today that he’s not convinced the 9/11 attacks happened like we say they did or if the death toll was accurate.
As usual the little man had his facts wrong:
“Four or five years ago, a suspicious event occurred in New York. A building collapsed and they said that 3,000 people had been killed but never published their names,” Ahmadinejad told Iranians in the holy city of Qom.
Obviously, Mr. Ahmadinejad failed to attend the last anniversary of the attacks where the names of 2,750 victims killed in New York were read aloud at a memorial ceremony.
-Chris Jones
Ahmadinejad: “Accept Israel’s imminent collapse”
Everyone’s favorite little dictator, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called on the West Wednesday to acknowledge Israel’s “imminent collapse.”
Speaking to a crowd on a visit to the southern port of Bushehr, where Iran’s first light-water nuclear power plant is being built by Russia, Ahmadinejad further incited his listeners to “stop supporting the Zionists, as [their] regime reached its final stage.”
“Accept that the life of Zionists will sooner or later come to an end,” the Iranian president said in a televised speech.
He added, “What we have right now is the last chapter [of Israeli atrocities] which the Palestinians and regional nations will confront and eventually turn in Palestine’s favor.”
Middle Eastern dictators seem to be short on good common sense. All a dictator has to do is look at where Saddam is right now to clearly see where all that threatening rhetoric gets you.
Ahmadinejad is truly delusional if he really believes that Israel will just back and allow his thuggish regime to complete its nuclear weapons program and continue making outrageous threats.
-Chris Jones
Columbia Professors Plan To Visit Iran To Apologize To Ahmadinejad
An academic delegation of Columbia University professors and deans of faculties plans to visit Tehran to officially apologize to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.
The delegation plans to express regret for the insulting remarks Columbia University President Lee Bollinger directed at Ahmadinejad on September 24 in his introductory speech, the Mehr News Agency in New York is reporting.
Hopefully, Ahmadinejad will like them so much he’ll want to keep them.
via Hot Air
Amhadinejad Criticized at Home
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cut short a two-day visit to Armenia to return home Tuesday, an Armenian spokesman said, at a time when the Iranian leader’s has come under criticism even by fellow conservatives for his replacement of the top nuclear negotiator.
Ali Larijani abruptly resigned his position as the top nuclear negotiator over the weekend, and was quickly replaced with a hard line Ahmadinejad loyalist.
Though a conservative, Larijani was considered more moderate than Ahmadinejad within Iran’s hardline camp, and the two men had previously clashed on how to approach the nuclear talks.
On Monday, 183 lawmakers, most of them conservatives, passed a measure praising Larijani’s performance as nuclear negotiator, a clear sign of displeasure with his departure. A parliamentary group wrote a letter of complaint to Ahmadinejad for failing to inform them of the resignation in advance or consult with them on Larijani’s successor.
Putin Makes Idle Threats Again
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday chastised the United States over its policy in Iraq and Iran, and announced “grandiose” military plans, including development of a new nuclear weapon.
In a nationally broadcast link-up with ordinary Russians across the country, Putin called the US intervention in Iraq a “dead end” and called on Washington to set a deadline for the withdrawal of troops.
Putin suggested that Iraq had been invaded because of its oil wealth and assured one caller that energy-rich Russia could not suffer the same fate. To think so, he said, was “political erotica.”
I don’t know anything about “political erotica” that must be something they only have in Russia. What I do know is that Putin is a lot of talk and little else.
In a video link-up with servicemen at the Plesetsk nuclear missile base, Putin said that Russia would build another nuclear submarine next year and was also planning a “completely new” atomic weapon.
The Soviet Union could use threatening rhetoric, because they had a powerful military. Besides, its nuclear stockpile Russia’s military is in complete tatters. The average soldier in Russia earns less than $2.00 a day and over half are serious alcoholics.
Putin likes to talk about America being bogged down in Iraq, but he should try not to throw stones when he lives in a glass house. Putin has over 100,000 troops occupying Chechnya and fighting a gruesome gorilla war with Muslim militants.
Russia’s army lives in horrible conditions and when a soldier is killed in Chechnya, the Russian Government can’t even afford to ship the corpse back. The other soldiers take up a collection if they can to pay for the shipment, otherwise it’s up to the family.
Every single branch of the Russian military is an absolute mess, so Putin just makes himself look like a jackass when he talks tough.
By Chris Jones
Putin Visits Iran, Threatens U.S.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin met his Iranian counterpart Tuesday and implicitly warned the U.S. not to use a former Soviet republic to stage an attack on Iran. He also said nations shouldn’t pursue oil pipeline projects in the area if they weren’t backed by regional powers.
Putin, whose trip to Tehran is the first by a Kremlin leader since World War II, warned that energy pipeline projects crossing the Caspian could only be implemented if all five nations that border the Caspian support them.
Putin did not name any specific country, but his statement underlined Moscow’s strong opposition to U.S.-backed efforts to build pipelines to deliver hydrocarbons to the West bypassing Russia.
The legal status of the Caspian – believed to contain the world’s third-largest energy reserves – has been in limbo since the 1991 Soviet collapse, leading to tension and conflicting claims to seabed oil deposits.
Iran, which shared the Caspian’s resources equally with the Soviet Union, insists that each coastal nation receive an equal portion of the seabed. Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan want the division based on the length of each nation’s shoreline, which would give Iran a smaller share.
Putin Risks Assasination To Visit Iran
Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted Monday he would travel to Iran despite reports about a possible assassination attempt, arguing direct contact and “peaceful means” were the only way to deal with the country’s nuclear program. Russia’s Interfax news agency, citing a source in Russia’s special services, said Sunday that suicide terrorists had been trained to carry out the assassination in Iran. The Kremlin said Putin was informed about the threat.
“Of course I am going to Iran,” Putin told reporters at a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel following talks in Wiesbaden, southwest Germany. “If I always listened to all the various threats and the recommendations of the special services I would never leave home.”
Putin’s trip will be scrutinized for changes in Russia’s complex position on Iran. Russia has been skeptical of more sanctions in the United Nations Security Council and is building Iran’s first nuclear reactor.
-Chris Jones
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