Earlier this week, Israeli transport minister Shaul Mofaz threatened, "If Iran continues with its programme for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective. Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable."

The Office of US Vice President Dick Cheney is reportedly in favor of military strikes against Iran, and President Bush has repeatedly described an attack as an "option" that he is keeping "on the table". Leading officials and military experts at the Pentagon, on the other hand, have reportedly been opposed to attacking Iran, and the State Department is said to favor a diplomatic approach.

When Bush made a comment while speaking before the Israeli Knesset last month likening talk of engaging Iran diplomatically with the appeasement of Hitler, it was widely interpreted to be an attack against presidential candidate Barak Obama.

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals," Bush said, "as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

But Bush's remark was more likely directed against members of his own administration. An Israeli Army Radio report cited a government official who spoke with a member of Bush's entourage during his visit to Israel who said that Bush had made up his mind to attack Iran before the end of his term, but that "the hesitancy of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" was preventing the administration from launching an attack.

The Bush administration denied that it had decided to attack Iran, but the substance of the report is hard to dismiss. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has advocated engaging Iran diplomatically. In 2004, Gates co-authored a report for the Council on Foreign Relations entitled "Iran: Time for a New Approach" that favored engagement. He was also a member of the 2006 Iraq Study Group which likewise recommended a diplomatic approach.

Immediately following Bush's speech to the Knesset, Gates seemed to back away from calls for diplomacy and and rebuffed calls for engagement with Iran. Earlier this month, Rice gave a speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in which she effectively ruled out talking to Iran, saying, "We would be willing to meet with them but not while they continue to inch toward nuclear weapons under the cover of talks. The real question isn't why won't the Bush administration talk to Iran. The real question is why won't Iran talk to us." She added, "For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon."

Iran has repeatedly called on Washington to engage in discussions not only about its nuclear program, but on working towards a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East, calls which have been rebuffed by the US, probably in no small part because any such talks would inevitably include a focus on Israel, the only nation in the region armed with nuclear weapons.

European Union member nations also agreed this week to join the US in employing even more stringent sanctions against Iran, going beyond existing UN sanctions, after a visit to Europe from President Bush.

Julianne Smith of the Center for Strategic and International Studies explained the decision by saying, "I think this was a European attempt to show the Bush administration that Europe takes the threat seriously and to try to continue to prevent a situation where Israel or the United States might turn to the military instrument."

Iran responded to the announcement about increased sanctions by withdrawing huge sums of its foreign exchange reserves from European banks. Last year, Iran abandoned the US dollar as the currency for oil trading in favor of the Japanese yen.

Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar responded to the latest Israeli threat to attack the country for continuing its nuclear program by saying, "Our armed forces are at the height of their readiness and if anyone should want to undertake such a foolish job the response would be very painful."

The US is demanding that Iran cease from enriching uranium despite the fact that Iran is a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which guarantees its right to enrich uranium for nuclear energy. The Bush administration has continually accused Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.

A US national intelligence estimate from November 2007 alleged that Iran had been working on building a nuclear weapon, but that its weapon program was ended in 2003. The IAEA has repeatedly stated that there is no solid evidence of an existing weapon program.

Iran insists its nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes only and insists on its right, guaranteed under the NPT, to enrich uranium for fuel in its nuclear energy program, and has called UN resolutions implementing sanctions and calling on Iran to cease uranium enrichment "illegal". Indeed, the NPT states that nothing may prejudice members' rights to continue with research and development, including uranium enrichment, while IAEA inspections and monitoring and verification efforts are underway.

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