Bad week for the 'bomb Iran' crowd

Middle East on January 12th, 2011 Must step away from Haiti issues for a moment to highlight a couple of very interesting comments made about Iran this week. First, the outgoing head of Israel's spy agency Mossad poured some cold water on Bibi's favourite trope, saying Israel should not attack Iran because "Iran won't reach its nuclear capabilities before 2015".   Fox News described the comment as "sabotaging policy". But perhaps more significant was a comment made later in the week by the new head of the IAEA. Yukio Amano, the man hand picked by Washington to replace Mohamed el Baradei and turn the screws on Iran over its nuclear programme, has rather unexpectedly forgotten the key element of the approved script. He told the German paper Der Spiegel: Despite all unanswered questions, we cannot say that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons programme. On the face of it, this comment is a complete contradiction of the firmly repeated assertions of the US and Israel. That it was made by the man who was expected to add urgency and momentum to the movement opposing Iran, is quite startling.  Strangely, the interviewer didn't pursue the issue at all.