The threat of an Israeli attack on Iran comes as two of America's most powerful lobbies are urging diametrically opposed policies towards Iran, with the Clinton Administration caught in the middle of this fierce debate. The potent Israel lobby got its partisans in Congress to authorize sale of advanced F-151's to Israel right in the middle of Mideast peace talks, producing deep alarm among the Arabs and Iran. The lobby's Congressional allies and media spokesmen keep up a drumfire of warnings that Iran is a violently anti-American, terrorist state. Israel's strategy is to get its American lobby to either push the US into attacking Iran, or at least keeping it under economic and political siege by Washington. But now, the powerful oil lobby has entered the fray on the opposite side.
Big oil needs access to Central Asia's vast energy resources.
Getting oil and gas out of the former Soviet republics requires building pipelines through either Afghanistan, Russia or Iran. The Afghan route is blocked by civil war. No one wants to give Russia control of Central Asia's resources. So the only practical route is south across Iran, to the Gulf. As a result, the oil lobby is pushing hard for an end to the two-decade cold war between the US and Iran, and rapid improvement of relations.