Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "congratulated" Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Russian people for the strongman's "decisive victory" Sunday night. The message was posted on the Iranian foreign ministry website (and translated using Google Translate).

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will travel soon to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for a discussion of border disputes and trade relations, reports the Iraqi news agency Aswat al-Ira. Ahmadinejad will meet with KRG president Massoud Barzani, who visited Tehran at the end of October with a delegation of KRG ministers and governors.

As Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s prepares to speak at the United Nations, it is tempting to dismiss his anti-American rants as just another propaganda stunt. But what makes his remarks difficult to ignore is that large segments of the Iranian population will buy into them. And that Ahmadinejad, along with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini and Iran’s clerical leadership, appear to believe what they are saying – fueling a narrative that drives Iran’s reckless international behavior.

Iran has a lot riding on the survival—both literal and political—of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez. If the Bolivarian revolutionary beats cancer and wins another term as president, Tehran will continue to enjoy a strategic partnership with the world’s fifth largest oil exporter. But if Chávez dies, or if Venezuela’s democratic opposition finds a way to defeat him at the ballot box, the mullahs will lose their most important ally in Latin America, an ally who has effectively turned his country into an Iranian satellite.

While the United Nations is doing its best to legitimize the forthcoming Durban III “anti-racism” bash, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears intent on blowing the U.N.’s cover. Each year for the past five years, Ahmadinejad has chosen to speak on the opening day of the General Assembly’s so-called general debate, when all the presidents, prime ministers, and foreign ministers annually descend on New York City.

A Washington Post editorial today correctly notes that, despite the policies of the Obama administration, "There has been no change in Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons or in its aggressive efforts to drive the United States out of the Middle East." The sanctions were supposed to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons. But the policy has not been able to achieve its stated goal.

Iran has long stonewalled the IAEA, the organization tasked with enforcing multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions that demand a halt to Iran’s illicit nuclear activities.

Tom Gross, a Middle East analyst based in Israel, recently gave an interview to Radio Farda, the pro-democracy branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that broadcasts in Iran. Gross discussed Iran, Israel, democracy, and the Middle East, among other topics. The interview was translated into Farsi and posted on Radio Farda's website (accessible here).

A recently leaked WikiLeaks cable says that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was slapped in the face by Revolutionary Guard chief of staff Mohammed Ali Jafari. The New York Daily News reports:

Last week Mahmoud Ahmadinejad acknowledged that Iran’s uranium enrichment program had suffered a setback: “They were able to disable on a limited basis some of our centrifuges by software installed in electronic equipment,” the Iranian president told reporters. This was something of an understatement.