Barbie has officially been pulled from Tehran's shelves, as Iran's religious leaders attempt to quash Western cultural influences. (Miguel Villagran/AFP/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM — The rhetoric between Iran and Israel has reached such a fever pitch that even the most staunch skeptics here are wondering if Israel might attack Iran unilaterally.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad personally ordered the launch via videolink, saying that he hoped the project would "promise further friendship for humanity."
Senior Iranian officials are "now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived US actions that threaten the regime," according to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
"Iran is unlikely to break out in 2012, in great part because it is deterred from doing so," according to the Institute for Science and International Security.
Sanctioning Iran, the world’s fifth largest oil producer, could trigger a shock to the oil market as serious as that caused by Libya’s revolution last year.
An Iranian Qader (Ghader) ground-to-sea missile is launched on the last day of navy war games near the Strait of Hormuz in early January. On Jan. 23, 2012, the European Union enacted tough sanctions against Iran; earlier, Tehran had threatened to close down the waterway in retaliation against an oil embargo. (Ebrahim Noroozi/AFP/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM — After years of pleading with Europe, Israel today welcomed the decision by the European Union’s 27 foreign ministers to embargo Iranian crude oil and freeze the assets of Iran’s central bank.
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