Malevolent toad-in-chief Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can’t resist gloating over the National Intelligence Estimate, of course.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran’s president declared victory over the United States on Wednesday and the head of a U.N. watchdog said Iran had been “somewhat vindicated” by a U.S. report that it had halted its nuclear weapons program.

U.S. President George W. Bush called for Tehran to “come clean” on its nuclear activities and stop its enrichment of uranium, which can potentially be used to make atomic bombs. But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran would press ahead with its nuclear program, which the Islamic Republic says has only peaceful civilian aims.

“Today, the Iranian nation is victorious but you (the United States) are empty-handed,” Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech to a rally in the western Iranian city of Ilam.

The UN’s blind nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, sounding as usual like a sleazy apologist for Iran, agrees.

Mohamed El-Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the report gave Iran a chance to resolve the crisis.

“It opens a window of opportunity for Iran now because Iran obviously has been somewhat vindicated in saying they have not been working on a weapons program at least for the last few years,” El-Baradei told a news conference in Brazil’s capital.