That's not anyone's guess -- a UN-backed international sanction on Iran has been a stated intention of Washington all along! And that's where the leak of the tactical nuke story has a role to play: selling sanctions.
The thing is that, as far as Americans are concerned, the nuke story is superfluous -- they are _already sold_ on sanctions:
* "Seven in 10 Americans would support international economic sanctions as a way to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons" (Claudia Deane, "Most Americans Back Sanctions on Iran," Washington Post, 31 January 2006);
* "Today, 27% of Americans cite Iran as the country that represents the greatest danger to the United States. In October, just 9% pointed to Iran as the biggest danger to the U.S. . . . Nearly two-thirds (65%) believe that Iran's nuclear program is a major threat to the U.S. . . . . Overwhelming numbers believe that if Iran were to develop nuclear weapons it would likely launch attacks on Israel (72%), and the U.S. or Europe (66%). There is even greater agreement that a nuclear-armed Iran would be likely to provide nuclear weapons to terrorists (82%). . . . A narrow majority (53%) worry that the U.S. will wait too long, but 34% say they worry the U.S. will act too quickly" (The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, "Iran a Growing Danger, Bush Gaining on Spy Issue," 7 February 2006);
* "Fifty-nine percent thought Iran would use nuclear weapons against the United States, and 80 percent thought the Iranians would hand them over to terrorists to use against the United States" ("Poll: Americans Nervous about Iran," CNN, 14 February 2006).
Those who aren't sold on sanctions yet are Moscow and Beijing. So, I take it that they are the ones who are the target audience of the leak.
-- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>