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The growing menace of an Iran poised to master the nuclear cycle - and build nuclear weapons for their missiles - is pushing the world community towards a new round of sanction.

And perhaps even an attack to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities if new sanctions fail.

But not everyone thinks that an aggressive posture against the Iranian regime would be the best course at this time. 

The Iranian regime has lost much of its legitimacy as it brazenly stole national elections- and the home grown revolutionaries pouring into the streets chanting "Death to the Dictator", i.e., Grand Ayatollah Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i,  may provide an answer for how to deal with Iran. 

The Globe and Mail analyses:

Shortly before Christmas, for the first time, the International Atomic Energy Agency recognized “the possibility of military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program.”

Iran, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has to disclose any nuclear activities and allow inspections. In September, the world learned Iran was beginning to create an undisclosed enrichment facility in a tunnel beneath a mountain. That, plus Mr. Ahmadinejad's hostility and evasiveness, have made Iran's potential nuclear-weapons program a bigger worry than its authoritarianism.

But the nuclear issue is the one that can wait. The country currently has 8,000 centrifuges for making low-enriched uranium, of which only about 3,936 are being run, a number that has dropped by a thousand since last June: Iran is close to a making a weapon the way an owner of an iron mine is close to making an automobile. Their program is dropping away, probably because the protests have created other priorities.

Given this and other intelligence discoveries, the White House now believes it will be as long as three years before Iran is even capable of beginning the enrichment of its fuel into weapons-grade purity. Even then, under the most desirable of circumstances, even one weapon would take five or six additional years.

An attack on Iran would almost certainly accelerate the pace of the nuclear program, by allowing the regime to channel all its energies into militarization – exactly what the political crisis has prevented it from doing.

More importantly, an attack would end any anti-regime resistance.

Iran has come close to a major transformation several times: In the mid-1980s, and then at the beginning of the last decade. Those movements were only halted by outside forces: Saddam Hussein's attack and the war that followed; George W. Bush's “axis of evil,” which brought Mr. Ahmadinejad to power. To throw a bunker-buster bomb in the middle of democratic change now would be a historically wasted opportunity.

Reuters reports on the U.S.' calculations:

A reform-minded ayatollah died in Iran and his funeral has become the focus of a massive anti-government protest.

Months after the clerical-military regime and its puppet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad robbed the presidential election, Iranian people are still protesting and demanding justice.

This funeral of this popular opposition figure, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, has give people yet another opportunity to hit the streets and protest against the regime.

Here's a clip of the protests at the funeral:

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets today in Qom, Iran's main theological center, to mourn the passing of the country's top dissident cleric, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died late Saturday at the age of 87.

Witnesses described a steady procession of mourners walking from Montazeri's home to the shrine of Fatemeh Masoumeh, where Montazeri was laid to rest. Despite the presence of security forces, many mourners chanted anti-government slogans and carried green ribbons and banners signifying allegiance to the opposition movement that sprang out of Iran's disputed June presidential elections.

As the ceremony concluded, Montazeri's son, Ahmad, asked mourners to disperse peacefully out of respect for the family. But there were a few reports of clashes between mourners and the security forces that had flooded the city, 90 miles south of the capital.

According to reformist news websites, pro-government militiamen pulled down a funerary banner honoring Montazeri.

 Here's the AP story explaining the funeral protests and what's next:

Iran's government announced war game exercises aimed at testing the nation's defenses against a potential attack on its nuclear facilities.

At the same time, the Iranian democratic opposition is seeking support from the West.   

Time reports:

After more than five months of going it alone, Iran's opposition Green Movement is reaching out to the United States for help. Via public and private channels, the Obama Administration has received several appeals in recent weeks to take a stronger stand against human-rights abuses in Iran, avoid military action and impose more aggressive and rapid-fire sanctions against the Revolutionary Guards and its vast business interests.

The opposition's outreach comes as the Administration weighs the next move in its diplomatic effort to resolve the nuclear standoff with Iran. Tehran has effectively rebuffed a confidence-building deal that would ship out the bulk of Iran's enriched-uranium stockpile to be converted into fuel rods for a medical-research reactor — which would also have added about a year to the time frame within which Iran could weaponize nuclear material. The deal would have offered more time for longer-term diplomatic negotiations. As a result, President Obama has begun trying to rally international support for a new round of sanctions.

Here's a FoxNews report on the war games and an interview with neo-conservative John Bolton:

Press TV, an Islamic Republic of Iran news agency, published the following bulletin on their site:

Iran to test new air defense system

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:55:47 GMT

Iran is to test a new anti-aircraft defense system during a five-day aerial maneuver, the Iranian defense minister has said.

 

The large-scale maneuver, which was launched on Sunday, is mainly aimed at developing the country's aerial defenses against any potential attack on the country's nuclear plants.

"The Defense Ministry's new anti-aircraft defense system will be tested in the Aseman-e-Velayat 2 maneuver," Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Sunday.
The Aseman-e-Velayat 2 is said to be Iran's biggest military drill to date.

He also said that while Iran would pursue a long-stalled deal with Russia over the delivery of the S-300 surface-to-air missile system, the Iranian Defense Ministry plans to design and build its own air defense system.

Russia and Iran clinched a deal on the sale of S-300 system in December 2007. Unofficial reports claim that the Russian-Iranian contract on the sale of the S-300 missiles to Iran is worth $800 million.

However, Russia has repeatedly delayed the delivery of the sophisticated S-300 missile defense system, a mobile land-based system designed to shoot down aircraft and cruise missiles.

Earlier in November, Vahidi criticized Russia over its repeated delays, saying Moscow had a "contractual obligation" to provide Iran with the system.
Russia is also running behind schedule in the launch of the Bushehr nuclear plant in southeastern Iran.

The plant was originally scheduled to be completed in 1999 but its completion has repeatedly been delayed, and even after ten years, Moscow is still postponing the launch of the facility.

Russia has cited 'technical' issues as the reason for the delays, ruling out that the decision was politically-motivated.
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