JERUSALEM - In Israel's harshest criticism yet of a U.S. intelligence report that Iran is no longer developing nuclear arms, a senior minister warned Saturday that the assessment could lead to a regional war that would threaten the Jewish state.
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter also suggested that Israel could no longer trust American intelligence, saying that its agencies could also issue false information about Palestinian security forces' crackdown on militant groups. The Palestinian action is required as part of a U.S.-backed renewal of peace talks with Israel this month.
Dichter cautioned that a refusal to recognize Iran's intentions to build weapons of mass destruction could lead to a regional war. He compared the possibility of such fighting to a surprise attack on Israel in 1973 by its Arab neighbours, which came to be known in Israel for the Yom Kippur Jewish holy day on which it began.
"The American misconception concerning Iran's nuclear weapons is liable to lead to a regional Yom Kippur where Israel will be among the countries that are threatened,'' Dichter said in a speech in a suburb south of Tel Aviv, according to his spokesman, Mati Gil. "Something went wrong in the American blueprint for analyzing the severity of the Iranian nuclear threat.''
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had refuted the U.S. intelligence assessment that came earlier this month, saying that Iran continues its activities to attain components necessary to produce nuclear weapons. Tehran still poses a major threat to the West and the world must stop it, Olmert said.
Israel has for years been warning that Iran is working on nuclear weapons and backed the United States in its international efforts to exert pressure on Iran to stop the program. Israel considers Iran a significant threat because of its nuclear ambitions, its long-range missile program and repeated calls by its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to wipe Israel off the map.
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
