Israel warns against easing stand against Iran (1st Lead)

Dec 5, 2007, 13:10 GMT

Tel Aviv - Israeli officials Wednesday warned world leaders against letting down their guard and easing their policies toward Iran's nuclear programme, after a new US intelligence report stated Tehran had halted its atomic weapons programme.

They also urged them to support greater sanctions against the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad despite the report.

'It is clear to all that Iran is continuing its efforts to acquire nuclear technology,' Israeli Vice Premier and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said in a statement sent to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Wednesday.

'The critical moment is the acquisition of the technology, after which Iran will be able to use this know-how in order to produce weapons secretly, without inspection,' she warned.

Continued 'determined' action was therefore needed to intensify the sanctions by all means, she said.

Israeli President Shimon Peres issued a similar, stark warning.

'Many intelligence reports throughout the world have proven inaccurate in the dimensions of history. But on the Iranian issue we cannot afford compromises,' a statement from his office said.

'There are a number of clear warning signs which stand above any intelligence reports,' the statement quoted him as telling visiting former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright.

Once Iran has nuclear abilities, the transfer from civilian to military use could be made 'easily and quickly,' he warned.

Dozens of North-Korean and Russian nuclear scientists were selling their know-how for 'a lot of money,' he said, and 'no intelligence organization in the world can know the exact amount of technology that is being passed on to Iran.

'We can wake up in the morning and find out that the technology has been passed on in full and unhindered and is on its way to implementation,' Peres told Albright.

Calling Ahmadinejad a 'dangerous and extremist religious leader,' he said Iran was supplying only 'crumbs of information' to United Nations nuclear inspectors and using 'manipulation' tactics by cooperating with them only partially.

'The world musn't be calm and mustn't end its fight against Ahmadinejad's with to create a nuclear bomb which will serve him in his war against the free world,' said Peres, whose current duties as president are mainly ceremonial, but who is considered an authority on the nuclear issue.

Livni earlier said the sanctions against Iran had 'proven effective' and that Israel would continue its own struggle against Iran's nuclear development.' 'All are in agreement that the world cannot accept a nuclear Iran,' she said.

Livni made the remarks in a briefing late Tuesday to Israeli ambassadors around the world, instructing them to continue their diplomatic fight against Iran's nuclear progamme, the statement from her office said.

Israel considers Iran as its biggest regional threat and has been pushing tougher sanctions within the UN Security Council.