Will the United States put real pressure on Russia to stop? The prevailing view in our State Department: “While America considers Georgia its strongest ally in the bloc of former Soviet countries, Washington needs Russia too much on big issues like Iran to risk it all to defend Georgia.”

In comments carried by Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, the head of the Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said Iran was capable of imposing “unlimited controls” at the Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the Persian Gulf and an important oil route.

Iran accused Yaghoob Mirnehad of being involved in the armed Jundallah group, which operates along the Iranian-Pakistani border. But the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said prosecutors held a secret trial and provided no evidence of Mirnehad’s links with Jundallah or involvement in any armed attacks.

“The Iranian people will resist with force against the enemies,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on state television on Friday. The comments came as the United States set a weekend deadline for Iran to respond to an international offer to freeze its nuclear drive.

Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh said during a recent interview that a meeting in Vice President Dick Cheney’s office earlier this year seriously considered a plan to dress up Navy Seals as Iranians, put them on fake Iranian speedboats, and shoot at them. The plan, intended to provoke a war with Iran, was ultimately rejected because it wasn’t possible to have Americans killing other Americans.

The United States and many of its allies have made it clear that they will not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran. They seem unlikely to abandon this position. On the other hand, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reasons to remain defiant. He has staked his political fortunes and Iran’s national pride on the issue.