Tehran's Take
Iran’s foreign policy is often portrayed in sensationalistic terms, but in reality it is a rational strategy meant to ensure the survival of the Islamic Republic against what Tehran thinks is an existential threat posed by the United States.
Related
The real decision-maker in Iran is Supreme Leader Khamenei not President Ahmadinejad. Blaming Iran's problems on President Ahmadinejad inaccurately suggests that Iran's problems will go away when Ahmadinejad does.
Both in public and underground, Iranians are debating the legitimacy of the Islamic state that Khomeini built. Students challenge the notion that Islam has all the answers but evince pride in an Iran free of the shah and under no foreign master. The religious and secular elites are increasingly willing to contemplate pluralism and openness to the world, though most makers of the revolution remain obdurate and appeal to anti-Americanism to stir up the masses. Washington needs to listen to the new voices of Iran.
In Iran today, defiant new movements are blossoming. They put the country on the cutting edge of the Islamic world on issues ranging from religious reform and cultural expression to women's rights. The theocratic regime that seized power in 1979 is unlikely to survive, but the driving force behind that revolution is prompting ordinary Iranians to go out and get what they need for themselves.

User Comments
Restraining Israel
Israel has a clear policy of unilaterally liquidating nuclear threats in the Middle East. It's probable that only the U.S. has restrained Israel from bombing Iran's nuclear works long since. Iran's sites are hardened now, but Israel is a very capable attacker. The real solution to Iran's threat to Israel is a successful two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. That implies the cooperation or neutralization of Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran's terrorist clients or proxies. Syria also would have been neutralized in the two-state process. An Iranian nuclear capability would most probably be made irrelevant by the two-state success. Consider that Pakistan, India, China, Russia, Britain, France, and the U.S are all nuclear powers, and all have interest and leverage in the Middle East. Iran would only add to the number with the nuclear card in their decks, but, like the others, unwilling to use it because of the terrible holocaust it would unleash on themselves. The two-state solution is the key to Iran as a threat, with only one exception: Iraq, and its potential for renewed conflict with Iran.
Iran-Israel
There is no mention in this article, and on other articles on the same subject, of other external interested countries than the USA. This may be an incorrect omission, since Iran has multiple and long time relations with European countries, Russia, as well as with Japan, and has had increasing relations with China and India over the past few years.
Therefore, the idea that an Israel's intention to make a pre-emptive attack on Iran (however misguided and with potentially catastrophic consequences this may be) would be solely subject to the approval of the US is most likely incomplete and unrealistic.
Iran is an important nation which has a network of regional and global relations. The justification and the possibility for Israel to make a pre-emptive attack on Iran, or for that matter on any country, including an assessment of the possible regional and global consequences of such an act, would therefore most likely involve other nations that the US, several of which may have different views on this matter than Israel or the US.
These global aspects may be usefully considered in other Foreign Affairs articles.