April 10, 2006: American journalists and politicians, who are hostile to American operations in Iraq, are pushing a story that the U.S. is planning to use nuclear weapons for an attack on Iranian nuclear weapons facilities. They offer no proof, and no explanation of how an American president would hope to survive the diplomatic fallout from using nuclear weapons for the first time since 1945. Iran loves these stories, because it enables the Islamic conservatives to make any democratic reformers appear unpatriotic for wanting free elections like those in the United States.
April 9, 2006: The military said it shot down an American UAV near the Iraqi border. U.S. UAVs have been flying over southern Iran for some time now, and often patrol the Iraqi border, looking for illegal line crossers and smugglers.
April 8, 2006: Turkey has moved several thousand additional troops to the Iranian border. Turkey believes Iran is supporting PKK Kurdish separatist rebels. Iran denies this, although Iran has supported Kurdish separatists in the past (even as Iran persecuted Kurdish separatists within Iran's Kurdish minority.)
April 8, 2006: Talks between the U.S. and Iran over Iraq have been put off. The talks were to deal with Iranian interference in Iraqi politics in southern politics.
April 3, 2006: Major land, air and naval exercises were held along the Persian Gulf coast. It was primarily a propaganda exercise. This involved firing missiles and other weapons, and participation by the Basij Islamic militia. The military claimed to have new high speed torpedoes, and short range ballistic missiles with multiple warheads and stealth features. No proof was offered, and the claims appear to be based on Russian weapons (the "Squall" torpedo and Iskander E missile) Iran hopes to buy, or build copies of. Iran has put on this kind of show in the past, but this one attracted more attention because of the international dispute over Iran's nuclear weapons and missile research.
