Toppling Iran still a hot item

London's Financial Times and Evening Standard are each reporting that the US is ratcheting up the pressure on Iran even further.

According to FT, there is support in Congress for some kind of "peaceful regime change in Iran." Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican from Kansas, is proposing an "Iran Democracy Act," which "would be similar in approach to the Iraq Liberation Act passed by Congress in 1998 which adopted regime change in Baghdad as the policy goal. The Iran bill would make it US policy to 'support an internationally monitored referendum in Iran by which the Iranian people can peacefully change the system of government in Iran.'" The bill might also include money for covert operations.

The Evening Standard, on the other hand, is reporting that "British and American intelligence and special forces have been put on alert for a conflict with Iran within the next 12 months," allegedly because of fears that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons program.