Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

From his denial of the Holocaust and Israel's right to exist, to his staunch support for Iran's nuclear program, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, elected president of Iran in 2005 and pictured here in Tehran in May of 2007, has quickly become one of the most controversial figures on the international stage.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during Friday prayers, Friday, Sept. 21, 2007, in Tehran. France and the U.S. stepped up demands for tough action over the Iran nuclear standoff ahead of a meeting of the major powers in Washington to discuss the dispute.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, stands between Brigadier General Azizollah Mohammadi, left, and newly appointed head of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards force, General Mohammad Ali Jaafari, right, during a visit to the commanders of Revolutionary Guardians in Tehran, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2007. Ahmadinejad is a former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) meeting on human rights and cultural diversity in Tehran, Sept. 3, 2007. Ahmadinejad tried to justify his confidence the U.S. will not attack Iran, saying the proof comes from his mathematical skills as an engineer and faith in God.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007. Ahmadinejad reiterated that Iran had achieved full proficiency in the nuclear fuel cycle and warned the West that dialogue and friendship, not threats were the right way to deal with Iran. Ahmadinejad also warned that a power vacuum is imminent in Iraq and said that Tehran was ready to help fill the gap.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, listens to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, right, before a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 14, 2007. Ahmadinejad rejected U.S. and British claims that Iranian weapons are being supplied to Taliban insurgents fighting the Afghan government. "I doubt seriously if there is any truth in it," Ahmadinejad said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, right, shakes hands with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prior their meeting at the Syrian al-Shaab Presidential Palace in Damascus, July 19, 2007. Ahmadinejad flew to Damascus for talks with Assad and Khaled Mishaal, an exiled leader of the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 4, 2007. He was an obscure figure when he was appointed mayor of Tehran in 2003 and was not much better known when he entered the presidential election campaign. Since his election he has taken a tough stand on a number of foreign policy matters, in line with his hard-line background.

Faye Turney, 26, left, the only woman among the British Navy personnel seized by Iran, meets with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, second right, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 4, 2007. Ahmadinejad announced that his government would release the 15 detained British sailors and marines as an Easter season gift to the British people.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad looks on during a joint press conference with his Sudanese counterpart Omar Al-Beshir after they signed an agreement in Khartoum, Sudan, Thursday, March 1, 2007. The Iranian and Sudanese presidents, whose regimes are under intense international scrutiny, struck a defiant pose in the face of Western pressure and vowed to defeat the "enemies of Islam."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, meets with participants at a conference on the Holocaust, as two anti-Zionist Rabbis sit at foreground, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2006. Participants at the conference questioning whether the Holocaust took place praised Ahmadinejad, saying the gathering gives them the chance to air theories casting doubt on the Nazi genocide that are banned in parts of Europe.

In front of the pictures of late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, right, and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, delivers a speech after attending an anti-Israel rally marking "Al-Quds Day" (Jerusalem Day), to support the Palestinian cause, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Oct. 20, 2006. Ahmadinejad called the U.N. Security Council and its decisions "illegitimate."

Iranian women hold a portrait of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a public meeting in the town of Robat Karim, 25 miles southwest of Tehran, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2006. Ahmadinejad urged the "frowning, but weaker West to change attitude towards the Iranian nation," as major powers pursue adoption of sanctions against Tehran for its controversial nuclear plans.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addresses a large crowd of supporters Friday, Oct. 6, 2006, in the town of Firouzkuh, 55 miles west of Tehran, Iran. During the address, Ahmadinejad called on European states to use the opportunity of talks to rectify their behavior towards Iran over the past 27 years.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, left, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad make a clenched-fist salute while in the Orinoco River basin in southeastern Venezuela for the opening of a new oil well, Sept. 18, 2006. Chavez and Ahmadinejad met a week later in Tehran in order to strengthen the economic links between the two OPEC countries.

An Iranian student holds up a picture of, left-to-right, Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Evo Morales of Bolivia during a visit by Daniel Ortega to Tehran University, June 10, 2007. Ortega was in Tehran for talks as Tehran seeks to boost ties with leftist Latin American critics of the U.S.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers a speech in front of a portrait of Iran's late founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, during the 18th anniversary of Khomeini's death at his mausoleum in Tehran, June 2007. Ahmadinejad vowed Iran would not back down in the standoff over its nuclear program, saying the Islamic republic was 'invincible' in the face of Western threats.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, then-Iranian president-elect, listens at a press conference in Tehran June 26, 2005. At the time. Ahmadinejad pledged to form a government of 'moderation' and said Tehran would continue talks over its nuclear

An undated picture of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

A U.S. hostage (blindfolded) is seen Nov. 8, 1979, being paraded by his captors in the compound of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran. Five U.S. survivors of the 444-day siege later said they remembered seeing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the dramatic 1979 takeover of the embassy. Iranian veterans of the standoff flatly denied that he was involved.