Re John. Bombing Iran may be a mistake. Interdicting the supplies of weapons is not not. Anything that comes from Iran to Iraq should be blasted.

Desmond Taylor, Houston, USA Tx

I think Akram has been watching the 'un-news.' Do a quick search and you can see that Iran is currently being lauded by the IAEA for being more cooperative, but they are still producing uranium and much of their program is shrouded in secrecy.

While I do not challenge that Iran might have support from many countries on this matter, I would not call it worldwide. As a matter of fact, I would challenge you to find any country in their own region outside of Syria that would support a nuclear Iran (especially Saudi Arabia - who does

The writer I felt was quite balanced in the story. He showed both the good and the bad about the situation. Your obviously misinformed and skewed view on this situation has clouded your ability to see the situation clearly. I am sure that there will not be a war over Iran, so dont get your hopes up too high:)

Dave, Dubai, UAE

The question is: How much amenable is the current US administration?

Mehdi, Tehran, Iran

Either there is something that no one in the world knows about except for the people in the White House and perhaps at number 10 Downing St. or these people (US and UK leaders) are on some sort of a mental trip.
Yes, they may be able to do a lot of damage and kill a lot of Iranians by their superior military but, they will start something they are unable to finish for certain. The whole world has become tired of the US being the bully of the world.
The American middle class, as always, is and will be the real victim of all these ultimately. How about health insurance coverage for everyone? How about fixing the thousands of dilapidated bridges? How about fixing the millions of potholes in the roads all over the US? How about caring for your elderly? How about providing a superior education for your children who are falling behind and will have, one day, to look for a decent job outside the US? Why don't you bomb your domestic problems first? Mr. Bush, you should be tried for treason.

Saul Inmann, Toronto, Canada

"but its 20-year record of deception, and continued obstruction of United Nations inspectors, has left the world disbelieving."

Where is this 'world' that you are referring to? As far as I know, the only people who truly believe without doubt that the Iranians are a threat to the world, are the Americans.

If anything, after the lies and deceit from Iraq, the world doubts the American president and his lap dog CNN.

Pete, Cov,

John of London has it right, but if my understanding is correct and according to the War Powers Act, Mr. Bush has the right to start any new war he may choose, and only after 90 days must he come to Congress and seek approval and authorization to continue. A massive bombing campaign in Iran would most certainly turn out the lights on the situation in the middle east, not to mention the world economy. My thought is that the most realistic chance to block this would be for PM Brown to come out clearly and strongly against it. God help us if he does not.

Tarquinis, Seattle, USA

If the US and the UK which are thousands of Kilometers are worried about Iraq to the extent that they can evcen engage on an illegal war, what about a country that shares a border! The moment you meddle in other peoples' affairs, you open the door for the same to meddle into yours. Just wait when Iran plants her misiles in Cuba!

Goldman, London, UK

In addition to deep links in the South, Iran has also supplied arms to the Kurds and has established strong trade links with the Kurds. Improving Iraq needs Iranian cooperation - the delinking that is necessary is because the West shouldnt water down certain demands re: the Iranian nuclear programme in return for cooperation in Iraq - but something to gain that cooperation is needed or else Iraq will sink even further. Less belligerence from the US is probably useful - and also not insisting on dealing with the nuclear issue in Bush's term - after 2009, Iran will likely be more amenable. The Iranian hardliners are acting aggressively because they have lost support from so many domestic stakeholders - they are weak.

This state of affairs is an indictment of the Iraq war as a policy - unless Iran also suffered regime change, toppling Saddam by war would always leave the country wide open to Iran - and regime change in Iran was always a farcically unrealistic policy.

FA, London,

"There is no reason – although Tehran may not need one – to connect the incident with President Bush’s speech the previous night, in which he declared that Iran’s nuclear ambitions put the region “under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust”. Well being a bit of an insomniac and listening to the radio all night I can tell you that the arrests took place one hour after the speech finished, not the next day. I would say that it is naive in the extreme not to see a connection between the speech and the arrests.

Jay Cee, Brussels,

The Iranians are a lot more rational than what the US administration is trying to convince the world. I believe we can deal with them, should we really want to. However, I don't think that is what our president wants. All I can say is that by attacking Iran, we will open a can of worms and we will not be able to put the lid back on again. I hope someone in Washington thinks hard about this. We should be very concerned with a much bigger threat to the world looming over the horizon in Pakistan. There are troubles brewing there bad enough that we will need help from the Iranians once again.

James Narayan, San Francisco, USA

President Bush is a mad man, after losing in Iraq. Now he blames Iran for his failures.

Munna, London, UK.

"Iraq, with its Shia majority, is a natural ally for the almost entirely Shia Iran"

Except for the fact that Iraq is predominantly Arab and Iran is not.

Perry Stalsis, Toronto,

US should stop behaving like world's policeman. That is making things worse. I think that if the US continues to makes these type of threatening speeches towards Iran, then surely as a sovereign nation, Iranians will be in their moral and international right to make nuclear weapons to defend themselves against any foreign attack. If Iran ever produces Atomic bombs then the blame for this will lie with American Government. Washington's threatning behaviour is pushing Iran to go down the nuclear path.

Z. Hussain, Rochdale, UK

So apart from the post-1991 abandonment of the Marsh Arabs of the south (Shias), the independence (and subsequent loss of oil-revenue) of Kuwait (twice), and past history of oppression against the Kurds (Bomber Harris cut his eye-teeth on them before plastering German cities), what have they got against us?
In the west we prize democracy, but in other places they prefer the simpler things in life, like not having their children blown up on the way to school or their wives slaughtered whilst trying to do the shopping. They don't really care who isn't shooting at them as long as it's no-one.

KR, Stockport,

The puzzle is why anyone would think that Bush's denunciations of alleged Iranian involvement in Iraq are actually aimed at Iran. They are clearly propaganda missiles aimed at the world public, like the "Iraqi WMD" hysteria, whose purpose is to facilitate another criminal war of aggression.

Richard Cheeseman, Wellington, New Zealand

To say " 20-year record of deception, and continued obstruction of United Nations inspectors, has left the world disbelieving" just shows the bias of the author.

Iran has actaully received a clean bill of health from the IAEA, and in fact has more support worldwide than the US on this matter. Not even US allies like Saudi Arabia or Jordan believe the US version. All the US has done is made allegations without a shred of evidence, much like the Iraqi WMD.

The US military and the CIA have both concurred they are unable to stop Iran militarily, so Bush is reduced to making empty threats. He can try to attack Iran, but it is the US which will come off worse (according the US military and the CIA)

akram, London,

Why has USA more right to interfere in Iraq than Iran, Syria, Jordan or Saudi arabia for example. it is about time USA left the region after so much killing rather than impose it's own brand of democracy. it failed in chile, vietnam, somalia

Aéjaz, salford,

Bombing Iran its big big mistake . We dont need more dead people and more blood

JOhn, London, England