Israel: US report on Iran may spark war.

Sometimes Israel goes a bit over the top even by partisan spinning standards! The rationale for the statement is really hard to fathom. The forces against Iran are not altered because of the report and as reckless as Iran may sound they have made no move to attack their neighbours or even threatened it. At the most they may be helping insurgents in Iraq but even that such as it is often may not be explicitly sanctioned. I expect that the US deliberately blows up any Iran involvement while not even recognising Saudi involvement in arming and financing the Sunni insurgency. To start a war would be absolutely foolish for Iran.


This is from Yahoo.

Israel: US report on Iran may spark war By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer
Sat Dec 15, 11:35 AM ET



JERUSALEM - Israel's public security minister warned Saturday that a U.S. intelligence report that said Iran is no longer developing nuclear arms could lead to a regional war that would threaten the Jewish state.

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In his remarks — Israel's harshest criticism yet of the U.S. report — Avi Dichter said the assessment also cast doubt on American intelligence in general, including information about Palestinian security forces' crackdown on militant groups. The Palestinian action is required as part of a U.S.-backed renewal of peace talks with Israel this month.

Dichter cautioned that a refusal to recognize Iran's intentions to build weapons of mass destruction could lead to armed conflict in the Middle East.

He compared the possibility of such fighting to a surprise attack on Israel in 1973 by its Arab neighbors, which came to be known in Israel for the Yom Kippur Jewish holy day on which it began.

"The American misconception concerning Iran's nuclear weapons is liable to lead to a regional Yom Kippur where Israel will be among the countries that are threatened," Dichter said in a speech in a suburb south of Tel Aviv, according to his spokesman, Mati Gil. "Something went wrong in the American blueprint for analyzing the severity of the Iranian nuclear threat."

Dichter didn't elaborate on the potential scenario but seemed to imply that a world that let its guard down regarding Iran would be more vulnerable to attack by the Islamic regime.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had disputed the U.S. intelligence assessment this month, saying that Iran continues its efforts to obtain components necessary to produce nuclear weapons. Tehran still poses a major threat to the West and the world must stop it, Olmert said.