Senior White House strategists holding brainstorming sessions in Washington this week over how to stop Iran's nuclear programme or effect regime change had only to look out their window for .a possible solution.

Gathered in nearby Lafayette Park were a few hundred supporters - exiled Iranians and Americans - of the People's Mujahideen Organisation (MKO). They were demonstrating against the Islamic regime and calling for a lifting of the US designation of the MKO as a terrorist group - a move taken by the Clinton administration in an effort to reach out to moderates in the Iranian establishment.