|
Iran still a threat - Olmert
12/02/2008 14:05 - (SA)
Berlin - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stressed on Tuesday that his government still views Iran's nuclear programme as a threat and said Jerusalem will respond to terror from Gaza "in every possible manner which will be effective".
Speaking after he met German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Olmert brushed aside the notion that Iran no longer posed a threat after a US national intelligence report estimated that Tehran had stopped working on a nuclear programme.
Israel still "is of the opinion that the Iranians are moving forward" with plans "to create a capacity for non-conventional weapons", Olmert told reporters.
Asked whether a military response was still an option, he cited US President George W Bush as saying that "nothing is ruled out".
Olmert also addressed the issue of attacks from Hamas-run Gaza.
"The Israeli government under my leadership is absolutely determined to respond to the challenge of terrorism from Gaza in every possible manner which will be effective," Olmert said. "We will not hesitate, we will not stop, we will do what's necessary to be done so that terrorists will understand that that leads nowhere."
At the same time, he said Israel "will continue our negotiations with the Palestinian authority" under Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
On Tuesday, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak indicated his country might try to overthrow the Hamas regime in Gaza, and Hamas leaders went into hiding after Israel threatened to hunt them down in the battle over daily rocket salvos.
The ongoing violence has cast a long shadow over troubled efforts to get peacemaking moving again.
Barak's remarks at a closed parliamentary committee session were the first by an Israeli leader about removing Hamas from power in Gaza, though Israel has said repeatedly it cannot negotiate a peace deal with the Palestinians as long as the violent Islamists are in control there.
- AP
|
News
