Iran has threatened a “crushing response to Israel’s slightest move” as the United States raises the volume against a pre-emptive strike. Iran also has announced new war games for next month.

The Ahmadinejad regime chose its ambassador to Lebanon, Qazanfar Roknabadi, to deliver a message on Saturday that “Iran will not start a possible war with the Zionist regime but will deliver a decisive response to any aggression by the regime." As usual, he refrained from using the term “Israel.”

Regardless of Israel’s intentions, Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps is planning new war games next month in a desert area in the central part of the country.

Commander of the IRGC Ground Forces, Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour, said on Saturday that the drill will implement “modern defensive tactics,…taking advantage of advanced indigenous military equipment,” the state-run Fars News Agency reported.

Iran’s media, most of it government controlled, played up advice by General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff,  that it would be unwise to attack Iran now.

“It’s not prudent at this point to decide to attack Iran,” Dempsey told CNN on Saturday. "I think it would be premature to exclusively decide that the time for a military option was upon us. A strike at this time would be destabilizing and wouldn’t achieve their (the Israelis’) long-term objectives. I wouldn’t suggest, sitting here today, that we’ve persuaded them that our view is the correct view and that they are acting in an ill-advised fashion.”

The Obama administration has been jaw-boning in the media against a military strike, claiming that harsh sanctions against Iran are working and that Israel should wait. the dilemma for Israel is that most military and intelligence officials warn that postponing military action will close the “window of opportunity” as Iran continues to race ahead towards nuclear capability, especially at its underground nuclear facilities.

The BBC reported Sunday that Iran appears to be preparing to speed up production of enriched uranium, a key ingredient of a nuclear weapon. It announced last week it has installed an additional 3,000 centrifuges in its underground nuclear plant near the city of Qom.

The Obama administration may be increasing pressure on Israel by sending U.S. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon to Jerusalem for talks with government and military officials.