Iran and US edge toward confrontation

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MJ14Ak01.html

Allegations by the United States government that the Qods force, the expeditionary branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was planning to assassinate Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, by means of explosives marks a dramatic escalation of tensions between the Islamic Republic and the United States.

While Iran has vociferously denied any involvement and the details of the alleged plot have raised eyebrows among experts and commentators, Asia Times Online recently warned that specifically in connection with the assassination of Iranian scientists by Israel, there were strong pressures on Iran to strike


back. (See Israel wages war on Iranian scientists August 27.)

Saudi Arabia is viewed by Iran as being actively involved in the Western and Israeli intelligence effort to sabotage Tehran's controversial nuclear program. For example, Saudi Arabia is believed to have played a key role in the defection of Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri to the US in 2009. Amiri returned to Iran a year later.

Assuming there is more than a grain of truth to the US allegations, this apparently bold Iranian action could be viewed as both a reaction to intolerable provocation as well as an attempt to take the strategic initiative by raising the stakes as part of a calculated policy of deterrence.