Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to wait for US-led sanctions to take hold before making unilateral decisions about preempting Iran's development of a bomb. He believes time is running out too fast to hold back for much longer.

US-Israeli discord over Iran went into overdrive Sunday, Jan. 15 when the White House called off Austere Challenge 12, the biggest joint war game the US and Israel have every staged, in reprisal for a comment by Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon in an early morning radio interview. He said the United States was hesitant over sanctions against Iran's central bank and oil for fear of a spike in oil prices and Israel must be ready to defend itself. Yaalon exacerbated the row over US objections to any Israeli role in military action against Iran.  

Saudi Arabia demands a precise, unequivocal US declaration of intent to prevent a nuclear Iran by a military strike if necessary. Riyadh doesn't trust sanctions to do the job – or Barak Obama to stick to the course of a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites without wavering.

On the last day of 2011, US President Barack Obama Saturday signed into law measures penalizing foreign financial institutions doing business with Iran's central bank, Bank Markazi - the toughest sanctions yet for Iran's program for developing a nuclear weapon. In recent weeks, Tehran has repeatedly warned that the signing of this measure would be deemed an act of war and elicit drastic steps including the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.  debkafile: Tehran appears to be heading for a showdown.

Dep. Chief of the Iran's Revolutionary Guards Gen. Hossein Salami Thursday, Dec. 29, warned: "The United States is in no position to tell Tehran what to do in the Strait of Hormuz. Any threat will be responded [to] by threat." Earlier, a US air carrier entered the Sea of Oman where Iran is conducting a big naval drill.  In Israel, chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz spoke of the mounting potential of a regional conflict, adding Israel could not afford to stay on the defensive.

Twenty-four hours before the Arab League Sunday, Nov. 27, clamped down sanctions on the Assad regime, the first ever against a member state, the armies of Syria's seven neighbors were already scrambling into position on standby for retaliation. debkafile: Israeli armored brigades moved up to the Lebanese and Syrian borders; Ankara placed three armored brigades, its air force and navy on the ready, likewise Hizballah and the Lebanese and Jordanian armed forces. Russia is sending Bashar Assad siege-breaking missiles.

Supreme Ruler Ayatollah Khamenei has decided that Iran can choke off military threats and economic sanctions simply by going public on its manufacture of a nuclear bomb and declaring itself a nuclear power. His national security council thinks this is a bad idea – especially when weapon production still ...

It is within the next six months or never. Israel's defense minister has finally confirmed its time frame for an attacking Iran's nuclear sites, having given up on sanctions present or future and strong UN nuclear agency counter-measures having any effect.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his inner council are very near to deciding on an unanswerable rejoinder to the rising level of international pressure on its nuclear program, DEBKA-Net-Weekly disclosed in its latest issue out last Friday.  It is designed to checkmate the West's drive to curb Iran's nuclear aspirations in the coming days before a military option develops and sanctions cut down to the bone.
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The IAEA circulated its Iran report Tuesday night, Nov. 8. It establishes that Iran is clearly working on developing atomic weapons: Its clandestine computer-simulated and practical tests on nuclear detonators, uranium enrichment at hidden sites and tests for adapting nuclear warheads to missiles have no explanation other than work on nuclear weapon components. Israel may decide to delay its military option to give sanctions a chance - even though Washington has dropped them.

Moscow has perfected mechanisms for helping Iran and now Syria beat international sanctions. Its price is to funnel their trade through Russian banks and agents – in rubles and/or yuans. For example, the Iranian Oil Bourse - IOB has been transacting petroleum, petrochemicals and gas deals in various currencies ...

Has Syrian President Bashar Assad started murdering his own generals? Three have disappeared. One body was discovered in hospital riddled with bullets and may have been liquidated by rebels. After quelling mass demonstrations, the regime faces rising opposition guerilla attacks. Fearing a descent into civil war, the Allawites and Druzes have formed armed militias to protect their domains. Strapped for cash by sanctions, the Assad regime is borrowing from Iranian banks.

Tehran has developed four systems for beating sanctions, including hawala, smuggling, recruiting ex-pats and big power help – except for the hard-hitting fuel penalties which bite deep. Certain that the next round of nuclear talks with the world powers will fail, Iran imposed austerity measures to build itself a ...

The $20 billion dollars which Western economists estimate are freed up by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's deep cuts of state subsidies will help cushion the country's nuclear program against the slowdown caused by the international sanctions imposed this year by the UN, the US and European countries, debkafile's Iranian sources report. They will also make more cash available for the president's personal political plans. Security forces flood the streets to suppress popular protest.

The Western powers are scrapping tough measures incorporated in the original motion they drafted for a UN Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran to make the draft more acceptable to Russia and China.

debkafile reports: By the time it is tabled, the resolution will be toothless as an instrument for holding back Iran's dash for a nuclear bomb.

Israel's president, prime minister and foreign minister are visiting Berlin, Warsaw and Budapest this week, apparently impervious to the European Union foreign ministers' decision in Brussels Monday, Jan. 25, to back away from sanctions for Iran's nuclear program outside the UN Security Council.  None have commented on the EU's abandonment of sanctions for Iran to the mercies of Russian and Chinese vetoes.

Taking advantage of the security scare surrounding the failed airliner bombing, the Obama administration has finally given up its sanctions strategy for averting the rise of a nuclear-armed Iran. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton announced Monday: "The Obama administration wants to keep the door to dialogue open with Iran."

In Jerusalem, the Netanyahu government keeps up the pretence that sanctions are still a viable option.

The loss of Dubai's big port facilities will expose Iran to the pain of sanctions. Abu Dhabi which is seeking the emirate's takeover promised Washington to shut the port to Tehran.