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Report On Iran Stokes Conflict Fears In Israel

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By LAURIE COPANS, The Associated Press

Published: December 16, 2007

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.

In his remarks - Israel's harshest criticism yet of the U.S. report - Avi Dichter said the assessment casts 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 as the start of the Yom Kippur War, named for the 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."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has disputed the U.S. intelligence assessment. Tehran still poses a major threat to the West, and the world must stop it, Olmert said.

Iran says its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes.

Israel will work to change the U.S. intelligence agencies' view of Iran, Dichter said.

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