Washington Post: Iran says ready to send uranium abroad as UN wants Iran said on Tuesday it was ready to send its uranium abroad for further enrichment as requested by the U.N.  President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the decision in an interview with state Iranian television.  He said Iran will have “no problem” giving the West its low-enriched uranium and taking it back several months later when it is enriched by 20 percent. The decision could signal a major shift in the Iranian position on the issue. Still, it was unclear how much of a concession the Ahmadinejad comments represented, even though he appeared to be saying for the first time that Iran was willing to ship out its enriched uranium and wait for it to be returned in the form of fuel for its Tehran research reactor.  Also coverage by the BBC here, WSJ: Many U.S. and European diplomats said Mr. Ahmadinejad’s comments appeared designed to upend an accelerating international campaign to sanction Iran for its nuclear work. In recent days, the Obama administration has begun circulating to allied countries the names of Iranian entities—including its central bank and businesses controlled by its elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—that Washington wants sanctioned under a new U.N. Security Council resolution, say officials who have seen the list. “Iran has continued to try and divide the international community on sanctions,” said a European diplomat working on Iran. “I don’t see why this overture would be any different.”

MSNBC: Iran floats prisoner swap for U.S. hikers Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday proposed a swap of Iranians in U.S. prisons for three American hikers being held in Tehran.  Ahmadinejad said in interview with state TV that there were ongoing negotiations about exchanging the hikers for several Iranians jailed for years in the United States. “There are some talks under way to have an exchange, if it is possible,” he said. “Recently they (the U.S.) have sent messages, we answered to bring them (the Iranians), to bring these people (the hikers). We are hopeful that all prisoners will be released.”

RFE: Ahmadinejad’s Budget Hikes Funding For Hard-Line Think Tanks Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has proposed increasing funds for hard-line think tanks by 143 percent in his draft government budget, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.

If passed by the parliament, hundreds of millions dollars more than the previous year would be directed to ideological institutes — mostly run by close associates of Ahmadinejad — that are trying to prepare the country for the imminent return of the “Hidden Imam.”

The Islamic republic’s official ideology dictates that the regime should prepare to hand over the government to the divine leadership of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi. Believers in the Hidden Imam, who was born in 869, say he did not die but was hidden by God and will eventually reappear as the savior of mankind.

One beneficiary of the proposed funding hikes would be the Ayandeh Rooshan Organization, led by Ahmadinejad’s brother-in-law Sfandiyar Rahim Mashayee, who also heads the Presidential Office. It is slated to receive some $120 million in the draft budget.

Another beneficiary of the new budget would be the Imam Khomeini think tank, run by Ahmadinejad’s spiritual adviser Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi.

Both institutes advance the Hidden Imam ideology. Ahmadinejad has made that ideology the basis of the legitimacy of his populist administration and his refusal to cooperate with opposition forces in the country.

In all, the budget proposal increases the number of hard-line institutions and individuals who support Ahmadinejad who are receiving direct government subsidies from 38 to 58.

By comparison, the amount of money proposed for the Rooyan Institute, a leading scientific research center involved in reproductive biomedicine, stem-cell research and technology, will receive $12 million.

The budget was presented last month to the Majlis, Iran’s parliament, and is waiting its approval.

NY Times: Senators Warned of Terrorist Attack on U.S. by July America’s top intelligence official told lawmakers on Tuesday that he was “highly certain” that Al Qaeda or one of its affiliates would attempt a large-scale attack on American soil within the next six months.  The assessment by Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, was much starker than his view last year, when he emphasized the considerable progress in the campaign to debilitate Al Qaeda and said that the global economic meltdown, rather than the prospect of a major terrorist attack, was the “primary near-term security concern of the United States.”

Tehran Bureau: Scrapbook: 1978-79

CNN: Ahmadinejad delivers pre-anniversary tribute to Iranian Revolution Ahead of the 31st anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country will show its support to the revolution on February 11.