Antonyan

MEMORANDUM *

Hayk Antonyan, a native and citizen of Armenia, petitions for review of a final order of removal issued by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”). 1 We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 , and we deny Antonyan’s petition for review.

The Immigration Judge (“IJ”) denied Antonyan’s asylum application, concluding that Antonyan was not credible. 2 Antonyan argues that the IJ’s adverse credibility determination erroneously rested on the IJ’s speculation and identification of inconsistencies that did not exist in the record. “An adverse credibility ruling will be upheld so long as identified inconsistencies go to the heart of the asylum claim.” Li v. Ashcroft, 378 F.3d 959, 962 (9th Cir.2004) (internal quotation marks and alteration omitted). “[Wjhether we have rejected some of the IJ’s grounds for an adverse credibility finding is irrelevant. So long as one of the identified grounds is supported by substantial evidence and goes to the heart of [the petitioner’s] claim of persecution, we are bound to accept the IJ’s adverse credibility finding.” Wang v. INS, 352 F.3d 1250, 1259 (9th Cir.2003).

We hold that the IJ did not err in concluding that Antonyan…