MOSCOW - Israel does not intend to bomb Iran, Israel's foreign minister said Wednesday, stepping back from suggestions it might attack a major foe it says is bent on developing nuclear weapons.
Speaking at the end of a three-day visit to Russia, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tehran's nuclear program is the world's problem, not just Israel's, and that its Arab neighbours should be even more concerned about the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran than Israel is. He said other nations should not expect Israel to solve this problem for them.
"We do not intend to bomb Iran, and nobody will solve their problems with our hands," Lieberman told reporters. "We don't need that. Israel is a strong country, we can protect ourselves.
"But the world should understand that the Iran's entrance into the nuclear club would prompt a whole arms race, a crazy race of unconventional weaponry across the Mideast -- that is a threat to the entire world order, a challenge to the whole international community," he said, in Russian. "So we do not want a global problem to be solved with our hands."
The remarks from Lieberman -- a leading hawk in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline government -- sounded strikingly softer than previous statements suggesting Israel might take military action against Iran. Netanyahu has repeatedly said Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, and has refused to rule out the use of force.
After his recent meeting in Washington with President Barack Obama, Netanyahu said he and Obama agreed Iran must not obtain nuclear weapons, and attempts to solve the problem through negotiations could not be unlimited in time.
Iran, whose president has expressed hatred of Israel, maintains its nuclear programs are only designed to provide electricity. But Israel, the United States and other nations fear the effort is aimed at acquiring nuclear weapons.
Lieberman suggested Iran's closer neighbours should be more concerned about a nuclear-armed Iran than Israel.
"It's clearly not an Israeli problem -- it's the problem of the whole Middle East, and those who are most concerned about the Iranian nuclear problem are the Arab countries," Lieberman said.
"I think that those Iran's nuclear program frightens most of all are the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and all the others," he said. "Iran is a factor of instability in the Middle East, without any connection with Israel."
Lieberman also criticized Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust. Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly questioned the extent of the Holocaust and called for Israel to be "wiped from the map," said Wednesday that the Holocaust was a "deception."
It was unclear if Lieberman had been informed of Wednesday's remark.
But he said the president of Iran sponsors an annual conference in Tehran on Holocaust denial and said, "this is unacceptable, and we must fight against all these phenomena."
Ahmadinejad told a gathering of international scholars in Tehran on Wednesday that Israel uses the "big deception of the Holocaust" to sway allies in the West. In April, he accused the West of using the Holocaust as a pretext for aggression against Palestinians.
Ahmadinejad has unabashedly kept up his rhetoric during his campaign for June 12 elections, despite the fact that his main pro-reform rival says the president's constant questioning of the Holocaust has undermined Iran's international standing.
Lieberman spoke as Obama began his first Mideast trip as president. He said Israel and the U.S. have "very friendly relations" but that friends can have misunderstandings and disagreements, and sounded a defiant note in Israel's dispute with Obama's administration over settlements in Palestinian areas.
"I think that the biggest mistake (is the) understanding that settlements are an obstacle to any peace solution ion the Middle East," he said.
Lieberman met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during his Russian visit, the first since he -- a Soviet native -- became Israel's foreign minister two months ago.
Israel wants Russia, which has close ties with Iran, to increase pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program. Lieberman's statement that Israel does not intend to bomb Iran will please the Kremlin, which has warned that attacking Iran would be a potentially catastrophic mistake.
But his visit brought no sign of a shift in Russian policy on Iran or Moscow's engagement with the violent Hamas group, which angers Israel.
"Doubtless, there are disagreements," Lieberman said. "But these disagreements were very clearly laid out and we will continue our dialogue with Russia."
He warned that Israel will not attend a Mideast peace conference Russia wants to host this year if Hamas or Hezbollah participate.
"Two organizations that have declared as their main goal the destruction of the state of Israel cannot be legitimate partners in any negotiations," he said.
Lieberman was heading from Russia to neighboring Belarus, where the Israeli Embassy said he would express concern about the government's close ties with Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko have exchanged visits and warm words of solidarity.
