The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has held only one hearing on Iran this year; its House counterpart has held five. ...

The hearings that have been held have exposed lawmakers to some alternative views of Iran’s intentions. Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations, for example, told House Foreign Affairs that Iran might want nuclear weapons to deter attacks and enhance its power rather than to actually use them, and that its support of Shiite militias has historical roots and probably is not intended to incite a broader conflict with the United States.

But many of the other witnesses have been administration officials or conservative analysts. For example, Ilan Berman, vice president for policy at the American Foreign Policy Council, a group known for its hawkish views, has testified twice. By contrast, Flynt Leverett of the New America Foundation, who served as an Iran expert on the National Security Council staff under Bush and has accused the administration of ignoring important diplomatic overtures from Iran after Sept. 11, is scheduled to testify for the first time later this week.

Leverett says there is little evidence that Iran is sending sophisticated weapons, such as powerful explosives, into Iraq specifically to kill U.S. soldiers, noting that Iraqi militias could just as easily be piecing them together from weapons and ammunition looted from Saddam Hussein’s regime after it was overthrown. ...

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