National Nuclear Day in Iran

I think they mean “We certainly have a right to use atomic energy.'” Wasn’t Sally Field stuck in Iran? Surely she could have helped on the verbiage. This was taken at Iran’s first National Nuclear Day in 2006. Yesterday was the fourth. Here’s how it went:

Addressing the audience, the president [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] declared two significant achievements as nuclear fuel packaging and its preparation for use in reactors to produce electricity.

The president cited the second achievement as trial of a new generation of centrifuges which multiplies the capacity of existing centrifuges.

Although National Nuclear Day has a certain ring to it, don’t you think so?, we must admit that even Arbor Day generates more excitement if not electricity. Anyway, a fair amount of Ahmadinejad’s activities in this regard feels a lot like nose rubbing – hence the English on the poster above, not to mention the doves.

The Guardian has an interesting story about the political aspects of National Nuclear Day in the changed atmosphere attending the new American President:

[Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei realises that during the expected negotiations, Obama would prefer a reformist resident of the presidential office in Louis Pasteur Street in Tehran. This is why he is waiting to negotiate with Iran after the Iranian presidential elections. He does not want to improve Ahmadinejad's chances. [At least to writer Meir Javedanfar; neither Khamenei nor Obama have indicated any of this.]

The story explains that Ahmadinejad attended a football game between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Iran lost and people, already wearying of him, decided he brought bad luck.

Imagine how hard it is to shake off the kind of trivia that knocks off politicians in this country, and bad luck, or ghadame shoor, sounds a pretty devastating blow on Ahmadinejad’s gong as he gears up for reelection.

The Guardian opines that what we called nose rubbing could have a second purpose:

However, the international community should understand that promoting one's capability and leveraging power is a tried and tested negotiation method. In other words, there is also the possibility that forthcoming statements could be mere bolstering to improve Iran's position before the start of negotiations with the US.

Seems kind of like the same thing to us, but okay. As the picture above shows, Ahmadinejad can sometimes be as transparent as a five-year-old trying to be crafty. Iran’s standing as a major threat may not sound as major a beep on the world radar as before, but bears close attention as the negotiations gear up.

In the meantime, happy National Nuclear Day, Iranian good folk. Nuclear energy is a gift. Use it peacefully, use it well.

Ahmadinejad, very tiny, the way we like him.