One moment, US President George W Bush was warning of the danger of World War III because of Iran's nuclear programme. In the next, peace was breaking out. It's been a strange year for Iran. For much of the year the pressure was building inexorably, as Iran refused to compromise over its programme to enrich uranium - a programme the West fears could be used to produce a nuclear bomb. New sanctions looked inevitable and war was beginning to look like a possibility. All that changed overnight with the release early in December of a new intelligence assessment in Washington which declared that Iran was not, after all, trying to build a bomb. It is quite amazing for you to wake up in the morning, and then all the accusations that have been stated against your country day and night, suddenly they have been withdrawn," said Saeed Mohamed Marandi, head of North American Studies at the University of Tehran.
Indeed, most observers believe this new intelligence assessment makes war almost impossible, even though Iran is continuing to develop centrifuges to enrich uranium.
