Iran's nuclear brinkmanship cannot mask a regime in decline Jack Straw

Iran and Israel were not always enemies. During the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), Israel was the only reliable and consistent western supplier of materiel to the Iranians. The US, western Europe and the Soviet Union all backed and supplied Iraq. Israel judged that Iraq was a far greater threat to it than Iran - and that Israel's interests lay in prolonging the war and weakening both sides.

- Jack Straw

Israel and Iran also cooperated closely on intelligence. On 7 June 1981 the Israeli air force launched an attack on the Iraqi nuclear facility Osirak, just outside Baghdad. Iran provided a lot of the overhead photography, which enabled better targeting by Israeli planes.

At the time, the US and Israel were far from holding a common position: the US backed UN security council resolution 487, which "strongly condemns [Israel's] military attack" on Osirak. That was a long time ago, of course.

More recently, the Iranians have been shifting their public position on nuclear weapons. For decades the Iranians have said nuclear weapons form no part of their nuclear programme; they quoted the fatwa of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the religious edict published in the 1990s prohibiting the development of nuclear weapons on ethical grounds. This has long strained credulity: why has Iran been enriching uranium beyond 60% U-235 if not as precursor to developing nuclear warheads?

But in the last few years, regime insiders have been floating the idea that perhaps Tehran is going to be forced into making nuclear weapons - and, by the way, that it wouldn't take that long.