Israel renewed a veiled threat to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities pre-emptively.
“We cannot resign ourselves to a nuclear-armed Iran,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in a briefing Monday. “All options are being considered.”
The Israeli prime minister’s remarks were the most forceful since a U.S. intelligence report late last year said Iran likely shelved its military nuclear program in 2003 — an assessment that was widely seen as ending any plans for pre-emptive strikes.
Like Olmert, President Bush has said Iran still poses a threat but voiced confidence in the effectiveness of Western sanctions in curbing the atomic ambitions of the Tehran regime.
Yediot Achronot reported that Israeli and U.S. officials will resume a strategic dialogue focused on Iran at the end of the month. Israel’s representative will be Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz; his U.S. counterpart will be State Department official Nicholas Burns.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.