International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, August 24, 2010

US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley told MSNBC on Monday that while the US is worried about Iran’s renegade nuclear program, the new weapons systems unveiled this week by the Islamic Republic’s military industry are not seen by the Pentagon as a serious threat.

"I don't think that any one weapon system is going to tip the balance one way or another," said Crowley. "[But] we've made clear that Iran having a nuclear capability would set off an arms race within the region. We want to do everything we can to forestall that."

Iran routinely exaggerates the capabilities of its domestic weapons production programs and its conventional armed forces have been assessed by several analysts as being massively inferior to those possessed by most of its neighbors.

In related news, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon gave an interview with Israel Radio’s Farsi station, which is broadcast into Iran.

"We have a great deal of respect for the Iranian people and yearn to work together with them to bring about a better reality in the region," he said. "The problem is with the regime of the ayatollahs and how it is run, especially on the nuclear issue and the blatant violation of human rights inside Iran."

"Remember that the sanctions are aimed against Iran’s efforts to arm itself with nuclear weapons, and if they don’t elicit results, the United States and other nations might consider other options. The Iranian regime spreads instability, supports terror, and oppresses its own people. It is impossible to accept atomic weapons in the hands of such a regime."

Meanwhile, an editorial Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal included rarely discussed reports coming out of Iran that the country is in a state of near turmoil, with a stubborn Green movement which continues to resist what it sees as the illegitimate presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, persistent problems that the government seems powerless to address and a growing rift within the ruling elite.

In late July, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander Mohammad Ali Jaffari, publicly conceded that several of his officers supported the Green Movement and had grown disillusioned with the governments heavy handed treatment of post election protests. Within days, some 250 IRGC officers had resigned, and in subsequent weeks several journalists working for the Guards affiliated Fars news agency have left Iran, seeking asylum in Europe and the US.

In addition to this, Iran’s oil and natural gas based economic infrastructure is crumbling after almost three decades during which little new money or technology has been invested in it, leading to frequent accidents. The unemployment rate hovers around 15% and drug abuse, homelessness and other social ills are widespread.

On top of everything, insurgencies in the north of the country by the restive Kurdish population and in the southwest by the Sunni Jundullah terrorist group have killed dozens of Iranian soldiers and police officers in recent months and caused hundreds of millions of dollars worth of economic damage.

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