This is a very clever move, and I think Apple will either approve or reject the app asap.
If they reject it I guess it will be under 'security' concerns, and not duplication of iphone functionality, followed by two months of blog posts and tweets about how Apple is evil and how Opera Mini is insecure and a CPU-hog in the other hand
Why should Apple treat them any differently than any other company? I assume they'll have to wait in line, just like everyone else. And when they deny it for security reasons, there will be a long laundry list of changes that would have to be made.
I do think you are right though about how there will be the inevitable onslaught of Opera vs. Apple posts (similar to the Apple vs. Adobe posts). But, I think that this will be a little more cut and dry. Opera would have had a better argument if they had actually submitted a browser, as opposed to a proxy.
If they reject it I guess it will be under 'security' concerns, and not duplication of iphone functionality, followed by two months of blog posts and tweets about how Apple is evil and how Opera Mini is insecure and a CPU-hog in the other hand