RAMALLAH, West Bank, 15 January 2008 — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday that he had told US President George W. Bush that Israel could not reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran, and that the government is “ruling out no options in advance” in barring Tehran from obtaining atomic weaponry. Speaking to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset (parliament), Olmert said that “anything that can prevent the nuclearization of Iran is a part of the legitimate context of dealing with the issue.”
Olmert said he had made clear to Bush in their meeting in Jerusalem last week that “Israel cannot reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran, and there is no option which we are ruling out in advance.” “Despite what has been said in the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), Iran was a danger and continues to be a danger. There is room to act in order to remove this danger, and the US is definitely aware of this,” Olmert said Sunday during the weekly Cabinet meeting.
The NIE report, published in late 2007, said that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Bush referred to Iran on Sunday as “the world’s leading state sponsor of terror,” and called on the US and its Arab allies to unite in order to confront this threat “before it is too late.”
According to Olmert, although the US intelligence report concludes that Iran had halted its nuclear program, “Our conclusions are not necessarily similar to what may be understood from the report’s wording. As far as Israel is concerned, the Iranians are continuing their efforts to create unconventional abilities, and we must therefore use all means to stop them.”
Olmert added that he had discussed the issue with Bush. “He too said, in the sharpest way, that Iran was and still is a danger in terms of its desire to create nuclear abilities, and this is where the conclusion on what should be done is derived from.”
