Hubris from Ahmadinejad: prelude to compromise on Iran nuclear program?
'If Iran wants to build an atomic weapon ... no one will be able to prevent it,' President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday. Here are some interpretations of what that boast really means, as talks near on the Iran nuclear program.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, back, watches while Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, right, bows to members of an honor guard during a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Friday.
Alexander F. Yuan/AP
Washington
Iran’s blustery president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is talking tough about Iran and the bomb again.
Is it a sign that Tehran is preparing the Iranian people for a compromise deal with world powers concerning Iran’s advancing nuclear program? That’s one interpretation that Iran and nuclear proliferation experts give to the always-provocative Mr. Ahmadinejad’s latest smack talk about his country’s nuke pursuits.
But there’s another line of thinking. It’s that the bravado couches mounting nervousness in Iran that the world powers – which include Iran's friends Russia and China – aren’t cracking, but rather are maintaining a united front toward Tehran.
“If Iran wants to build an atomic weapon, it doesn’t fear anyone and will publicly announce it and no one will be able to prevent it,” Ahmadinejad boasted Friday, in a post on his presidential website.
After the preening came the addendum, sotto voce: Of course, Ahmadinejad noted, Iran has no need or intention of building nuclear weapons.
