DUBAI (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday he was ready to be the first human sent into orbit by Iran's fledgling space program, Iranian media reported.
Iran declared last
week that it had successfully launched a monkey into space and retrieved
it alive, which officials hailed as a major step towards their goal of
sending humans into space.
The launch added to Western concerns about Iran's space program because the same rocket technology could potentially be used to deliver a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile.
"I am ready to be the first human to be sent to space by Iranian scientists," Ahmadinejad said on Monday, on the sidelines of an exhibition of space achievements in Tehran, according to the Mehr news agency.
"Sending living
things into space is the result of Iranian efforts and the dedication of
thousands of Iranian scientists."
Ahmadinejad is known for provocative public comments and it was unclear whether the suggestion was a serious one.
His second and
final term as president ends in June, and his political star has been on
the wane since he fell out with parliament early in his second term and
appeared to lose the support of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Sunday he stood
up in parliament to play a tape recording that he said provided evidence
of corruption by the family of parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani,
his political arch-rival and a likely frontrunner to succeed him as
president. Larijani and his brother Fazel denied the accusations.
(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Marcus George and Kevin Liffey)
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