Iran is now the most-watched country on the planet

Whatever happens in and to Iran in the next six months, every move the ayatollahs and Revolutionary Guard make that looks like they are trying to revive their damaged nuclear programme and advance towards 90-per-cent enriched uranium for a bomb will be watched and eavesdropped on by both Israel and the United States. Nothing they do will go unnoticed. Mossad agents who have penetrated the Iranian regime for years will be sending back intelligence reports to make sure Tehran's intentions are going to be assessed in the finest detail. There will be no escape for Tehran's nuclear scientists. Many of them have been assassinated already. Others will no doubt be wondering every day they awake whether Mossad will be waiting for them. How diplomacy can succeed when there is this sort of pressure on the regime is difficult to fathom. But both the US and Israel must be hoping that the tension will increase to such a level that the regime itself will fall or be toppled. But one should feel pity for the younger generation in Iran who are probably desperate to lead a decent more western-style life, free of repression by the ayatollahs and the Revolutionary Guard but who will be too scared to protest at the state of their lives.