Ahmadinejad definitely has an ace up his sleeve. Probably a nuke warhead sold to him by Russia or China. I think he started this war.
There's not a doubt in my mind that this war was started by Iran. Their President Ahmadenijad wants to stir up as much violence as possible to pave the way for the 12th Imam. However, there are only two reasons he started it:
1) His nuclear case was referred to the Security Council, and Ahmadenijad is stalling for more time to acquire the nuke.
2) He already has the nuke, and the time(in his mind) has come for the final battle between "the Islamic World" and Israel. This is the more frightening possibility of the two.