Iran is ready to begin talks again with the United Nations Security Council about its nuclear program, according to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While talks have begun in the past over Iran's nuclear program, its previous tactic was just to use these meetings as a way to buy more time to continue to push forward with their nuclear capabilities, according to the Associated Press.
Ahmadinejad has become a major political player on the world stage. Here is some more information on him.
* Born Mahmoud Saborjhian into a poor family, Ahmadinejad was the fourth of seven children.
* The family name Saborjhian means thread painter, which is a poor man's job, so the name was changed by his father to Ahmadinejad, which means race of Muhammad, according to Biography.com.
* Ahmadinejad placed 130th out of 400,000 students when taking the university exams.
* He became politically active against the Shah Mohammed Reva Pahlavi, who was put into power due to a coup that was led by the CIA, according to Notable Biographies.
* In 1986, Ahmadinejad became a senior member of Iran's elite Special Brigade of Revolutionary Guards after volunteering to fight in the war against Iraq.
* He became a civil engineering professor for a while but in 1993, Ahmadinejad became the adviser on cultural affairs to the minister of culture and higher education.
* He also named later that year the governor general of Ardabil Province.
* Ahmadinejad remained governor until 1997, according to Infoplease.
* Ahmadinejad became the mayor of Tehran after going back to teaching for a while.
* Ahmadinejad decided to run for president in 2005 against President Hashemi Rafsanjani.
* Ahmadinejad used his youth and experience in the Iraq-Iran War to win over the newer Iranian generation, and he promised in his campaign to provide a monthly stipend to citizens, according to GlobalSecurity.org.
* It was thought that the race was going to be a close one, but Ahmadinejad won with more than 61 percent of the vote, according to the Los Angeles Times.
* Since becoming president, Ahmadinejad has stirred the pot by calling the holocaust a myth.
* Ahmadinejad was well liked by the people when he began to take the expensive furniture out of the presidential palace to try to promote an image that he was one of the people.
* Soon, he began to put his conservative Islamic views into law by opposing free speech and arresting people for not dressing properly.
* Women who were not fully veiled were being detained by police, according to MSNBC.
* With the failing economy and the human rights violations, the election in 2009 had a record turnout, with the opposition being Mir Hossein Mousavi.
* Ahmadinejad was announced as the winner with 62 percent of the vote, which sparked major protests, according to CNN.
* The protests eventually stopped after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei supported the outcome and said the margin of victory was too large for it to be voter fraud.
* Since his re-election, Ahmadinejad has been building the nuclear program further, which has sparked international criticism.
Lauren Finnegan graduated from Hawaii Pacific University with a bachelor's degree in political science and has an insider's perspective on the military because of her role as a military wife who has lived around the country.
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