From Haaretz.

If anyone still had doubts about an imminent conflict with Iran, it was removed this week by the arrival of the U.S. army chief in Israel and the threats from the Iranian president and Hezbollah secretary-general.

Something sinister is in the air.

If the international community's collision course with Tehran leads to harsh sanctions meant to halt its nuclear program, the spring and summer months will be especially sensitive. It would be impossible to rule out a scenario in which the increasing tension leads to all-out open war. Tehran and Jerusalem regularly exchange threatening messages via various channels, but with Beirut, Gaza and Damascus in the middle, the situation is liable to get out of control.

Hurriyet Daily News report.

A major threat to world peace from Iran's obtaining nuclear weapons would be the kick off of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, in which a number of countries including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt would seek nuclear weapons, the Israeli prime minister told his Greek counterpart at a meeting in Russia.

New York Times report.

Gen. Ray Odierno, the senior American commander in Iraq, said Tuesday that two influential Iraqi politicians now involved in blocking candidates in the parliamentary election next month had close links to Iran, which the general said was trying to undermine the vote.

Al Jazeera report.

Speaking at a news conference on Monday in Riyadh with Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, Prince Saud al-Faisal said the threat posed by Iran's nuclear ambitions demanded a more immediate solution than sanctions.

Al-Faisal described sanctions as a long-term solution, and said the threat is more pressing.

"But we see the issue in the shorter term because we are closer to the threat. We need immediate resolution rather than gradual resolution," he said.

The minister did not identify a preferred short-term resolution.

From Israeli Defense Forces news site.

"The option to attack Iran is still on the table, but we're not there yet."

Independent report.

The wife of Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi is claiming that her son was savagely beaten during last week's protests and accuses the nation's supreme leader of tolerating such abuses. In an open letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Fatameh Karroubi says her son Ali was beaten inside a mosque by hard-line militiamen.

Haaretz report.

The United States believes Iran's Revolutionary Guards are driving the country towards military dictatorship and should be targeted in any new UN sanctions, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday.

Washington Post report.

Russia sees no reason to stall on the sale of its S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Iran, the Kremlin's powerful Security Council said Sunday, hours before the premier of Iran's adversary Israel was due to visit Moscow.

Times report.

The Obama Administration started an intense diplomatic push yesterday to achieve global isolation of Iran over its nuclear weapons programme. The move was spearheaded by Hillary Clinton, who landed in the Middle East to confer with Arab allies.

The diplomatic effort involves US officials fanning out across the region. It began as the White House said for the first time that China was close to backing a new round of UN sanctions against the regime. As America's top four diplomats landed in the region, General James Jones, President Obama's National Security Adviser, said that the US would press the UN to impose new sanctions this month.

Jack Shenker on the New Statesman "Staggers" blog.

Here's a thought experiment: pick a random Middle Eastern country led by an unpopular autocrat whose legitimacy is being challenged by a growing wave of public dissent. Add in widespread allegations of electoral fraud, and increasingly violent confrontations on the street between protesters and security services -- clashes that have left many civilians dead. Now imagine this politically volatile state is a major player in the area, and that change at the top could have an explosive effect on the geopolitical dynamics of the entire region. How much press coverage do you think it would receive in the west?

[...]

Whichever way you splice the figures, the disparity in media attention between Cairo and Tehran is inescapable. You can draw only one conclusion: western media outlets apply vastly different editorial judgements to these two countries and, as a result, readers at home are consuming a heavily skewed diet of Middle Eastern news. The issue is not, as some have suggested, why Egyptians remain so placid in the face of oppression from their political masters. They don't. The question is why nobody cares.

Reuters report.

Acknowledging China's reluctance, Jim Jones, Obama's national security adviser, told the "Fox News Sunday" program: "We need to work on China a little more. On this issue they cannot be nonsupportive."

Laura Rozen in Politico.

After arriving in Doha today and meeting with the Turkish foreign minister and Qatari leaders, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads to Saudi Arabia where she will meet with Saudi King Abdullah and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.

What's on Clinton's Saudi agenda? Prodding Saudi leaders to offer the Chinese energy supply guarantees in exchange for Beijing's nod for Iran sanctions, AFP's Lachlan Carmichael posits.

Haaretz report.

Israel may lack the military means for successful preemptive strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, former Chief of Staff Dan Halutz told Channel 2 news on Saturday.

[...]

"We are taking upon ourselves a task that is bigger than us" Halutz, who stepped down in 2007, said when asked about Israeli leaders' vows to "take care" of the perceived threat.

New York Times article.

With tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions hitting new levels, the United States is mounting a diplomatic full-court press in the Middle East, sending four top diplomats, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, to confer with Arab and Israeli leaders.

The envoys' visits to Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar were planned separately in recent weeks, but they now have a common purpose, administration officials said: to reassure Iran's neighbors that the United States will stand firm against Tehran, and to enlist other countries in a global effort to put pressure on the Iranian authorities.

Laura Rozen in Politico.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is headed to Israel Sunday for meetings with his Israeli Defense Force counterparts on cooperation, Israeli daily Haaretz reports:

"During his visit, Admiral Mullen will meet with Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, IDF General Gabi Ashkenazi, as well as other senior IDF commanders to discuss the two countries mutual security concerns, including the situation in Iran," the paper said.

Foreign Policy article.

As the United States shifts from engagement to sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian opposition takes to the streets, a broad and diverse team of officials inside the Obama administration is working on the issue day in and day out.