Guardian report.

"There is no space between the US and Israel when it comes to Israel's security," Biden said, after meeting the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem. Their talks appeared to focus on Iran and its nuclear ambitions, rather than on the new round of low-key, indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians that was agreed yesterday.

New York Times report.

Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, a leading reformer, has been barred from travelling abroad, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported on Tuesday.

UPI story.

As the United States and other powers mull tightening economic sanctions on Iran, Tehran says it has begin mass production of cruise missiles -- just the thing to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

From The Media Line.

Iran and China have signed an agreement to allow China to set-up an oilrig in the Gulf despite increasing international calls to enforce tougher sanctions against Iran.

In a deal worth $143 million between the Iranian North Drilling Company and China Petroleum Technology Development Corporation, the latter will be allowed to drill for oil in the Gulf, according to the official Iranian news agency Press TV.

Guest piece by Jean-François Seznec on the Leveretts' Race for Iran blog.

Seen from Washington, Saudi Arabia seems to speak with a forked tongue on Iran. On the one hand, the Saudis are telling the United States that under no circumstances should it bomb Iran, or allow Israel to do so. On the other hand, the Saudis are also letting it be known that they are worried and quite sure that Iran is building nuclear weapons.

It seems that, in fact, the Saudis are more worried about potential U.S. military action against Iran than they are about the Iranians' ability actually to obtain nuclear weapons. The Saudis may not express this view clearly enough to change views on Capitol Hill, but the U.S. executive branch is probably quite aware of Saudi worries about the prospect of U.S. military intervention in Iran.

Jon Snow on his Channel 4 blog.

Put simply, he's in Israel to try to dissuade the Israelis from bombing Iran.

There remains a strong thread of opinion inside the Israeli cabinet that argues that Iran is building a nuclear bomb and needs to be stopped in its tracks. Reportedly, Israel does not have a supply of the American developed deep bunker busting bomb required to penetrate the storage chambers in Natanz where, beneath some 55ft of reinforced concrete, Iran keeps her enriched uranium.

But the US Vice President, Joe Biden is not alone in his mission.

Financial Times report.

The world's largest oil traders have quietly stopped supplying petrol to Iran in a sign that the threat of sanctions and Washington's behind-the-scenes efforts are paying off.

However, the decision by Vitol, Glencore and Trafigura is unlikely to cut Tehran off completely from the global petrol market as traders said that Iran's long-standing suppliers were being replaced by small Dubai-based and Chinese companies.

Al Jazeera report.

Iran's defence minister has announced a new production line of short-range cruise missiles which he says are highly accurate and capable of evading radar.

General Ahmad Vahidi told state news agency IRNA on Sunday that the Nasr 1 would be capable of destroying targets such as warships.

"The Nasr-1 missile is able to destroy 3,000-tonne targets," he said.

From Persia House.

Events in recent months have caused officials to take special measures into consideration for the last Wednesday of the year [Chaharshanbeh Suri: the last Tuesday evening of the Iranian calendar year, which is celebrated in streets and neighborhoods throughout Iran with bonfires and firecrackers] in order to prevent abuse of the celebration.

Ynetnews article

Deputy Minister for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, MK Ayoob Kara (Likud), said Israel had received messages from radical Muslim states with which it does not have diplomatic relations saying they would back any Israeli or US move against Iran.

"These are positive, secretive messages which say that they will support any move," Kara said at a cultural event in Beersheba Saturday. "They have conveyed clear messages that they are concerned about the Iranian problem."

He refused to name the states involved, but said there was a "wall to wall coalition" of Muslim nations against the Islamic Republic.

Deutsche Welle report.

In Africa, Iran has engaged in economic and development projects in a number of countries: in Senegal where Khodro, Iran's largest car manufacturer, opened an assembly line in 2007; Nigeria with which it has agreed to share nuclear technology for the production of electricity; and it enjoys good relations with South Africa (a regional leader) where its support of the ANC during the apartheid era has meant that South Africa has remained a true friend.

However, nowhere is the success of Iran's investment quite as clear as in Sudan. "Iran has been successful in strengthening ties with Sudan because the two countries have an ideological link. They are standing up against the West and imperialism," Sanam Vakil, an expert on Iran at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC, told Deutsche Welle.

Joseph Trento in DC Bureau.

While the Obama administration prepares for a military conflict with Iran, it is important for us to understand some of the secret history between Iran and the United States that complicates the planning and unnecessarily puts our soldiers and sailors in harm's way. What follows is one story about how that happened.

Roger Cohen comments in the New York Times.

There's nothing new in U.S. hawks reducing Iran to a nuclear abstraction, its 70 million citizens subsumed into a putative warhead, its civilization ignored and its historical grievances against the United States glossed over -- all in the name of making Persia a U.S. electoral pawn and a threat that demands bombs.

But the war option remains unthinkable, a potential disaster for the United States and Israel. It's therefore worth outlining, before the drumbeat intensifies in the run-up to the mid-term U.S. elections, 10 truths about Iran.

From CASMII.

[...] Iran's ongoing internal political crisis has apparently led some Western anti-war organizations and activists to be ambivalent about the need to stand against Western aggression against Iran. Regardless of how activists view Iran's internal situation, we all must agree that outside pressure and interference must be opposed. Recognizing this, Iran's political opposition has urged Western countries to stay out of Iran's internal affairs.

Wall Street Jornal article.

The Obama administration, still struggling to win China's pivotal backing for a new round of United Nations sanctions against Iran, is increasingly worried about gaining the support of some other members of the U.N. Security Council, particularly Brazil, Turkey and Lebanon, according to U.S. and European officials.

Mark Hosenball in Newsweek.

After Abdolmalek Rigi--the suspected leader of the anti-Iranian jihadist group Jundullah--was arrested by Iranian authorities last week, he made a startling public claim: the Obama administration offered to give his group money and munitions to help in their efforts to undermine the government of Iran. Obama administration officials say Rigi is making up stories. They insist the United States has never had a relationship with Jundullah, a little-known group of Sunni jihadists based along Pakistan's border with Iran. The group has carried out deadly bombing attacks that have killed hundreds of Iranian soldiers and civilians.

Yet there appears to be at least some brief history between the U.S. and Junduallah. Declassified has learned that several years ago, the group did in fact try to cut a deal with U.S. officials--but were rebuffed.