Iranian president promises space program breakthroughs

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said he will announce good news about “great achievements” by Iranian scientists in the aerospace industry in the near future.

He made the remarks in a live interview with Channel One of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting on Tuesday night.

Ahmadinejad did not elaborate on the details of the aerospace industry breakthroughs, but on Monday, Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced that Iran will inaugurate five important aerospace projects on February 3, which is the country's Aerospace Technology Day.

Elsewhere in his remarks during the IRIB interview, the Iranian president stated that Iran will welcome “honest” nuclear cooperation with other countries, saying that Iran is ready for a nuclear swap.

“Some countries have agreed to engage in nuclear cooperation with Iran but this has annoyed some, like Britain and the Zionist regime, because they don't want confrontation to turn into cooperation,” Ahmadinejad added.

He went on to say that Iran has the technology to enrich uranium to a purity of 20 percent itself but the Islamic Republic sees no obstacle preventing nuclear cooperation with the world's nuclear countries.

“We have said that if you act honestly, we will cooperate with you,” Ahmadinejad added.

“We said that the swap to receive the 20-percent enriched uranium should take place in Iran, and they said that they accept it,” the Iranian president said, referring to the major powers that are involved in the talks on the nuclear swap deal.

“Recently, they asked us to begin new talks and said that they were ready to provide nuclear fuel to us, even if our fuel remained in Iran,” Ahmadinejad stated.

“Even if we sent our nuclear fuel abroad, it would cause no problem,” Ahmadinejad said, adding that the controversy about the nuclear swap deal was unnecessary.

“In Iran, some said that if we send our nuclear fuel abroad, they (the Western powers) will not give us enriched fuel, but we should know that if they renege on providing nuclear fuel to Iran, it will prove that the countries which signed the nuclear swap deal are not reliable,” he observed.