Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow in Middle Eastern studies at the Foreign Affairs Council seems to be conducting a full fledged campaign to present Iran as both not threatening and strong. I kid you not. Here are the titles of a few of his recent articles:

Why Iran isn't a global threat

It’s not Israel that’s driving Teheran to N-power

Iran's strength is becoming bigger problem for U.S.

He complains that the administration has"turned opposition into a profession," and argues in a 9/28/2005 Financial Times op-ed (not on the net) that"Tehran has convinced much of the non-aligned community that the real issue is the right of the poorer nations to develop nuclear power" despite of the fact that Venezuela was the only country which supported Iran in the IAEA while countries like India (whose vote created a domestic and international earthquack) , Peru, Singapore and Ecuador voted with the majority. He even intimated (suggested?) that Iran's energy resources would enable it to blackmail oil needy countries like Japan and India who voted with the US.

Well, Iran tried to follow his advice but had to backtrack quickly. The game is not over, but I cannot but wonder what Ray Takeyh finds so attractive in these Mullahs.