Vahid Reza Alaei / AP Photo
On Sunday, Iran announced a series of Iranian-made military hardware advancements, including surface-to-surface missiles, mini-submarines and a prototype of its first long-range unmanned bomber. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proudly unveiled the drone, and stated that his nation was entitled to launch pre-emptive strikes. "If there is an ignorant person or an egoist or a tyrant who just wanted to make an aggression,” he said, “then our Defense Ministry should reach a point where it could cut off the hand of the aggressor before it decided to make an aggression...We should reach a point when Iran would serve as a Defense umbrella for all freedom loving nations in the face of world aggressors.” As for its nuclear program, a growing cause for concern internationally, Ahmadinejad insists that it is a peaceful program—save for when it could be used to counter strikes against its nuclear sites.