President of Iran's Blog

An Iranian nuclear official says the purpose of a U.N. warning station set up in Turkmenistan near the border with Iran is "espionage." The U.N. announced last week the new nuclear warning station — one of dozens such observatories worldwide that monitor for seismic activity and radioactivity. The station, just miles from the Iranian border, can detect extremely weak blasts and even shock waves from nuclear experiments. The Iranian official, Abolfazl Zohrehvand, says the station will only give world powers an opportunity to spy on Iran. Zohrehvand, an adviser to Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, spoke on Wednesday to state IRNA news agency. The ... Read Full Story

In yet another sign of how mentally unstable he is, Al Arabiya television is reporting that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is claiming that the United States is attempting to block the return of the Mahdi. Shi'ite Muslims (and some Sunni Muslims) believe that the Mahdi will be revealed during a time of great crisis and will rid the world of error, tyranny and injustice alongside Jesus. Ahmadinejad has spoken frequently of the Mahdi in the past. He is apparently a true believer in this messianic figure. Now Ahmadinejad has taken things to an entirely new level by claiming that the United States government is ... Read Full Story

Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi has said the country needs 20 uranium enrichment plants in order to meet all its electricity needs, state-owned English-language Press TV reported. Salehi told Press TV late Friday that the plants have to be equal in size to Iran's existing flagship uranium enrichment plant in the central city of Natanz. "We are in need of 20 thousand megawatts that means 20 times the amount (of fuel) the Natanz" facility can produce, Salehi said in an interview, adding that the Natanz site has a capacity of about 30 tonnes of enriched uranium per year. "Now the government has decided ... Read Full Story

A defiant President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Iran will itself enrich uranium up to 20 percent purity in a blow to Western efforts to stop Tehran's sensitive nuclear activities. Ahmadinejad also said that even the Islamic republic's arch-foe Israel would be unable to do a "damn thing" about Iran's nuclear programme. He reiterated that as far as Tehran is concerned, the nuclear issue is "over" and said the Islamic republic will "not back down from its rights." "The Iranian nation will by itself make the 20 percent (nuclear) fuel (enriched uranium) and whatever it needs," the hardliner announced in a speech broadcast ... Read Full Story

Iran hit out at its longtime nuclear partner Russia Tuesday over a yes vote for a censure motion at the UN atomic watchdog and insisted it was serious about plans for 10 more uranium enrichment plants. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that despite the support given in the International Atomic Energy Agency vote on Friday by Russia and China, Western governments would not succeed in their efforts to isolate Iran. In a rare tirade against the government that has been building Iran's first nuclear power plant in the Gulf port of Bushehr and had been expected to deliver advanced air-defence missiles for its facilities, Ahmadinejad ... Read Full Story