Put Up Your Nukes

Iranian President and up-and-coming schoolyard brawler Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared in a televised address Wednesday his country’s willingness to “bloody the enemy’s nose” in order to defend its national sovereignty. At issue is Iran’s controversial nuclear program, which Ahmadinejad has declared is negotiable only with U.N. nuclear officials, not the politicized Security Council.

Reuters:

Iran’s president on Wednesday warned the West to expect a “bloody nose” over mounting pressure on Iran to halt its sensitive uranium enrichment activities, state television reported.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany will meet on April 16 in Shanghai to discuss whether to sweeten incentives they had offered Iran in 2006 to curb its nuclear program.

In a televised address from the northeastern city of Mashhad, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted Iran would never abandon its atomic work, which the West fears is a cover to build nuclear bombs. Iran says its work is to produce energy.

“The Iranian nation will bloody the enemy’s (the West’s) nose if they want to violate an iota of our rights (to nuclear technology),” he said without elaborating.

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The Sydney Morning Herald

Scrappier than he looks: The pugilistic rhetoric coming from Iran’s corner also included “the nation slapping [the West] in the mouth.”