The move would play further havoc with oil prices, and could send the price of oil spiraling to $200 and beyond.

Iran claims to have the world’s third largest reserves of oil at approximately 136 billion barrels as of 2007. The country ranks second if Canadian reserves of non-conventional oil are excluded.

This from The Jeruslam Post:

[A senior Israeli] official claimed that a senior member of the president’s entourage, which concluded a trip to Israel last week, said during a closed meeting that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were of the opinion that military action was called for.

However, the official continued, “the hesitancy of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice” was preventing the administration from deciding to launch such an attack on the Islamic Republic, for the time being.

The report stated that according to assessments in Israel, recent turmoil in Lebanon, where Hizbullah de facto established control of the country, was advancing an American attack.

Of course, there a reasons other than national security for Bush to launch an attack on Iran.

First, there’s the upcoming US presidential election. An attack on Iran would force the Democratic candidate to go toe to toe with war veteran John McCain while the US was at war on three fronts.

Secondly, it would neutralize Iran’s attempts to have oil priced in non-dollar denominated currencies.

Profit Watch editor Manraaj Singh points out that at a summit in Saudi Arabia last year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the falling dollar as a “worthless piece of paper.” Iran actually ditched the U.S. dollar for international oil transactions last December. They’re selling in euro and yen these days.

You only have to look at Iraq to see what happens when an uppity Middle-Eastern oil producer targets ditching the dollar for oil trades.

“Investing in oil isn’t the best way to play this boom, however,” says Manraaj.

“We expect the price of oil to keep rising. But as I have pointed out before, we don’t think the best profit opportunities from this trend come from investing directly in oil. There’s too much volatility in the price.

“The REAL money is going to be made by putting your money into the fast growing companies operating in the regions that are profiting from the petrodollar boom.”

Read on here to find out how to profit from the rising tide of petrodollars.