News Brief

International sanctions have a 50 percent chance of curbing Iran’s atomic ambitions, a top Israeli official said. Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz, who handles Israel’s strategic ties with the United States, said in an interview published Tuesday that Jerusalem supports U.S.-led efforts to step up sanctions against Iran after it flouted two U.N. Security Council resolutions intended to halt its uranium enrichment. The alternative to Western diplomatic pressure, pre-emptive military strikes, is too risky an option to weigh lightly, he said. “I don’t think that it is right today to talk about military options as long as you have not exhausted all the other options, especially sanctions,” Mofaz told the Jerusalem Post. “I give the sanctions more than a 50 percent chance [to succeed]. Not 10 percent or 20 percent. Otherwise we would not be investing so much effort in it.” Mofaz flies to Washington this week for talks that will include discussions of opening a possible new peace dialogue with Syria. He said that following last year’s Lebanon war, Damascus was in a state of high preparedness to throw itself into a new conflict — perhaps on behalf of Iran. “It is enough that there be a terrorist attack along the Lebanese or Syrian border, and we respond and open fire,” he said. “They could interpret this, due to the high level of tension, as an attack on their sovereignty and it could set off a whole new wave [of violence].”