US policy, the election and Iran's nuclear capability

Back in June, John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the UN stated that Israel will most likely attack Iran's nuclear facilities between the presidential election and the swearing-in of the new president:

"The Israelis have one eye on the calendar because of the pace at which the Iranians are proceeding both to develop their nuclear weapons capability and to do things like increase their defences by buying new Russian anti-aircraft systems and further harden the nuclear installations.

They're also obviously looking at the American election calendar. My judgement is they would not want to do anything before our election because there's no telling what impact it could have on the election."

A 2007 article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quotes Brigadier General Giora Eiland, a member of the Institute for National Strategic Studies:

"Even if, at the end of the day, Israeli jets are going to carry out, or execute, this attack, it might be perceived - and rightly - as an understanding between the United States and Israel."

Article IV The United Nations' Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) recognizes "the inalienable right of sovereign states to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes." However, Iran was found to be non-compliant with its NPT obligations in an unusual non-consensus decision because it "failed in a number of instances over an extended period of time" to report aspects of its enrichment program.

The report which resulted in this decision states:

"To date, there is no evidence that the previously undeclared nuclear material and activities referred to [...] were related to a nuclear weapons programme. (My italics.) However, given Iran’s past pattern of concealment, it will take some time before the Agency is able to conclude that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes."

Hardly a basis for the United States' client state in the region to attack Iran's nuclear installations, nothwithstanding the furore over Ahmedinejad's mistranslated pronouncements about Israel.