An informed Iranian source revealed that Israeli Mossad attempted to assassinate Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his recent visit to Lebanon. The source also revealed that a number of Iranians visited the Israeli border [with Lebanon] two weeks ago under the protection of Hezbollah, and also accused Washington of attempting to bring the Iranian opposition together under one leadership in order to create tension in Iran.

Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said Wikileaks has exposed the Islamic regime's "vulnerability" due to its government's policies which have left Tehran without allies in the Gulf.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri visits Iran on Saturday, seeking its help to prevent political tensions turning violent if a U.N.-backed tribunal indicts Hezbollah members for killing his father. Western diplomats have said that the tribunal could indict members of Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria, by early next year for the 2005 bombing which killed former premier Rafik al-Hariri and 21 others.

Iran's 'Supreme Guide' Ali Khamenei is not a travelling man. He has not set foot out of Iran since 1988 partly for fears that an international arrest warrant issued against him by Interpol on behalf of a German court, which found him guilty of ordering the assassination of Kurdish dissidents in Berlin, may cause him a spot of bother. He is also reluctant to travel inside Iran, cocooning himself in his palace in the foothills of Alborz. So, it is something of a surprise that the 'Supreme Guide' has found enough time this month to visit Qom, a provincial centre some 90 miles south of Tehran, on two occasions.

Washington Post columnist, David Ignatius, asked in yesterday s edition of the newspaper, whether Iran was serious about negotiating with the U.S. over the nuclear issue, or if it was merely killing time. The answer is, of course, that Iran is procrastinating, and killing time, whether the subject is the nuclear issue, or Iraq and Lebanon. Syria is also guilty of this. Some may wonder: What is the connection here?

Iran on Tuesday offered the first official indication that Oman is playing a role in trying to secure the release of two American men imprisoned for more than a year. The remarks by foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast come after a newspaper reported that an Omani delegation was expected to visit Iran and hoped to take the detainees home with it.

Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat- An official source in the Iranian government has stated to Asharq Al-Awsat that his Tehran places the Israeli Dimona nuclear reactor on top of its list of targets if Iran comes under Israeli or US strike. In reply to a question on how Tehran views the threats of a military offensive on its nuclear and military facilities, the source told Asharq Al-Awsat: "We view the possibility of carrying out the threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran as extremely remote," noting that the United States and Israel are "in a state of weakness" that does not qualify them to launch a new war on Iran.

The late Ruhallah Khomeini was no philosopher. But he, too, made the mistake that only philosophers can make. He took Marx s advice about changing the world rather than interpreting it and tried to de-Iranise Iran. However, despite his boundless hatred for the idea of Iran, the agitator from Khomein, the luckiest adventurer in our history, also failed. The question "Islam or Iran?" has been a hot topic in Iranian politics during several conjectures in history. When Iranians were angry at a regime that beat the drum of Iranian-ness as the core of its legitimacy, they emphasised the concept of Islam in opposition. They grew beards, flocked to the mosques, bought rosaries and brought the mullahs out of the backyards of forgotten neighbourhoods to oppose despotism based on nationalism. This time, Iranians are emphasising the concept of Iran in opposition to a regime that wrongly claims Islam as its source of legitimacy. This time, too, the fight is against despotism, not religion.

U.S. officials have convinced Israel that Iran needs at least a year to develop a nuclear weapon, dimming prospects of an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, The New York Times reports. Israeli officials thought Iran could develop nuclear weapons within months. But Gary Samore, President Barack Obama's top adviser on nuclear issues, told the Times he thinks it would take Tehran "roughly a year" to turn low-enriched uranium into weapons-grade material. "A year is a very long period of time," Samore was quoted by the newspaper in an report posted on its website late Thursday.