The British Government has moved to curb American enthusiasm for an attack on Iran by issuing a dossier outlining the cause for military peace, it was reported in London yesterday.
In marked contrast to Britain's publications in support of the Iraq invasion, the dossier has been released quietly but makes no secret of the Blair Government's preference for a "negotiated solution" to Iran's nuclear program.
The Sunday Times reported that Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had issued the 200-page document without fanfare through the House of Commons late last week, as a measure to inoculate Britain against further military action in the Middle East.
Speculation about an imminent US attack on Iran was refreshed last week by President George Bush's inauguration speech promising that he would use his second term to spread democracy and freedom across the globe "by force of arms if necessary".
Vice-President Dick Cheney reinforced that undertaking. "You look around at potential trouble spots. Iran is right at the top of the list," he said.
The New Yorker magazine also published an article last week claiming that US agents were already secretly in Iran scouting for strike targets.
Iran signed up to a program of weapons inspections 15 months ago under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and a tripartite group of European countries - Britain, Germany and France - has taken responsibility for managing a diplomatic solution.
Mr Cheney's words, in particular, have been interpreted as a diplomatic message to the European nations to take a sterner line on Iran.
The British dossier, however, was reported by The Sunday Times as a demonstration of the Blair Government's preference for diplomacy and fear that Mr Bush will be led into a further conflict in the Middle East.
A diplomatic source quoted by The Sunday Times expressed concern that the US was acting on flawed intelligence, or at the very least overreacting to inconclusive evidence from its satellite surveillance of Iranian installations.
The Foreign Office dossier is reportedly different in tone from that released by the British Government in 2003 outlining evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, which claimed that Iraq's then president Saddam Hussein could activate weapons within 45 minutes.
Iran has acknowledged that it is developing nuclear capabilities, but says its only interest is in generating power - a justification that the Straw dossier reportedly endorses as valid.
Iran is yet to respond directly to the latest round of US rhetoric, but the conservative national Tehran Times condemned the Bush Administration for its "belligerent, unilateralist policies (that) brought about nothing but crisis and insecurity for the world".