Iran

• Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrullah has indicated that the Lebanese terrorist organisation may not necessarily launch a war against Israel in the event that Israel attacks Iran. Hezbollah is commonly considered to be an Iranian proxy and most experts assumed that the group would recommence rocket attacks against Israel, which have otherwise halted since the 2006 war, in response to any attack on Iran. (Ynet)

“On the day that Israel strikes the Iranian nuclear facilities… the Iranian leadership won’t ask Hezbollah for anything, and won’t dictate anything and won’t want anything,” he stressed. “On that day we will have to think and decided what to do.” (Roi Kais)

• In an unprecedented move, the Iranian parliament has summoned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to answer questions on his performance. (Guardian)
• Iranian authorities have beaten and imprisoned dissident blogger Mehdi Khazali.

America

• In his pre-game interview before Sunday’s Superbowl, US President Barack Obama affirmed that Israel and the US are in “lockstep” over the Iranian threat and indicated that he did not see an attack on Iran as imminent. (Politico)
• Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has met with a number of US foreign policy officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, all of whom have reaffirmed the American commitment to Israel’s security and to preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. (Haaretz, Jpost)

Egypt

• More on the arrests of American aid workers in Egypt: Tunisian journalist Asma Ghribi, who interned at the International Republican Institute, one of the aid organisations whose workers were arrested, has written about how the arrests may reflect an attempt to prevent the spread of democratic values. (HuffPo)
• Egypt’s new Islamist-dominated parliament has blamed the ruling military council for the deaths in the recent riot at a soccer game and called for the Minister of the Interior to resign and for the “remnants of the Mubarak Regime” to be “purged”. (Reuters)

Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz