Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted the impending collapse of the "U.S. empire".

According to the state-run IRNA news agency, speaking at a press conference with Kuwaiti media representatives, Ahmadinejad said: “How long can a government with a $16,000 trillion foreign debt remain a world power? The Americans have injected their paper wealth into the world economy and today the aftermaths and negative effects of their pseudo-wealth have plagued them.”

“An empire, or a government, remains in power so long as the people under its power support it, but today the Americans have acted in a way that the world nations do not like them at all, and therefore, their international legitimacy is annihilated,” he said.