thanks for your interesting responses .. if this guy really is playing chess then I still can't see where he wins by trading off international goodwill for political status in the Arab world. Maybe he figures that Iran will somehow benefit from the increased pressure that other countries will impose on it, after these statements. I still can't see how he could benefit though. If he escalates this, and invites a military response from Israel and/or the US, I still can't see how he would benefit.

My main hope these days, is that with mass-media, the internet, and hundreds of years of this sort of pathology, that people generally are going to wise up to psychotic and sociopathic regimes & leaders, and also maybe will finally get sick and tired of allowing violent psychosis to dominate political and social life.