Tel Aviv - Israeli officials Wednesday warned world leaders
against letting down their guard and easing their policies toward
Iran's nuclear programme, after a new US intelligence report stated
Tehran had halted its atomic weapons programme.
They also urged them to support greater sanctions against the
regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad despite the report.
'It is clear to all that Iran is continuing its efforts to acquire
nuclear technology,' Israeli Vice Premier and Foreign Minister Tzipi
Livni said in a statement sent to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa
Wednesday.
'The critical moment is the acquisition of the technology, after
which Iran will be able to use this know-how in order to produce
weapons secretly, without inspection,' she warned.
Continued 'determined' action was therefore needed to intensify
the sanctions by all means, she said.
Israeli President Shimon Peres issued a similar, stark warning.
'Many intelligence reports throughout the world have proven
inaccurate in the dimensions of history. But on the Iranian issue we
cannot afford compromises,' a statement from his office said.
'There are a number of clear warning signs which stand above any
intelligence reports,' the statement quoted him as telling visiting
former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright.
Once Iran has nuclear abilities, the transfer from civilian to
military use could be made 'easily and quickly,' he warned.
Dozens of North-Korean and Russian nuclear scientists were selling
their know-how for 'a lot of money,' he said, and 'no intelligence
organization in the world can know the exact amount of technology
that is being passed on to Iran.
'We can wake up in the morning and find out that the technology
has been passed on in full and unhindered and is on its way to
implementation,' Peres told Albright.
Calling Ahmadinejad a 'dangerous and extremist religious leader,'
he said Iran was supplying only 'crumbs of information' to United
Nations nuclear inspectors and using 'manipulation' tactics by
cooperating with them only partially.
'The world musn't be calm and mustn't end its fight against
Ahmadinejad's with to create a nuclear bomb which will serve him in
his war against the free world,' said Peres, whose current duties as
president are mainly ceremonial, but who is considered an authority
on the nuclear issue.
Livni earlier said the sanctions against Iran had 'proven
effective' and that Israel would continue its own struggle against
Iran's nuclear development.' 'All are in agreement that the world
cannot accept a nuclear Iran,' she said.
Livni made the remarks in a briefing late Tuesday to Israeli
ambassadors around the world, instructing them to continue their
diplomatic fight against Iran's nuclear progamme, the statement from
her office said.
Israel considers Iran as its biggest regional threat and has been
pushing tougher sanctions within the UN Security Council.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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