IRAN has played its diplomatic hand deftly. On the eve of the meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on September 24, Iran's highest authorities let it be known that in case countries which get their oil and gas from Iran vote against it, they might face retaliation.

What he said next, in this public discourse on Al Jazeera, was pointed and explosive: "Our findings in Iraq proved that the agency was right because we didn't find anything which indicated the presence of nuclear weapons in Iraq... If we want to take a lesson from Iraq, we should not rush before all realities are clarified, and this is what we want to do about Iran."