CIAO DATE: 09/2010
August 2010
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
On July 31, according to Iran's semiofficial Mehr News Agency, presidential chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashai claimed that the West had raised no objections to President Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad's open proclamation that the Islamic Republic could build a nuclear bomb. How should this surprising claim be interpreted? And what implications might it hold for Iran's domestic politics, especially when viewed alongside Ahmadinezhad's history of confrontational rhetoric?
Resource link: Ahmadinezhad's Bomb Rhetoric: Opportunities for U.S. Policy [PDF] - 13K