Last Update: 24/01/2005 17:48
 
Dagan: Egypt, Syria have nuclear programs, as well as Iran
 
By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
 
 
 
The head of the Mossad intelligence service, Meir Dagan, warned Monday that there are signs that several Middle East states other than Iran - including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria - are at varying stages of development of nuclear programs.
 
Dagan, reviewing the security situation for the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, also warned that the atomic threat posed by Iran will soon reach the point of no return in a nuclear arms race.

The Mossad chief told committee members that Iran is attempting to lead the International Atomic Energy Agency astray.

According to Dagan, Russia is still helping Iran build its nuclear reactor in Bushehr.

In addition, Dagan said Iran is encouraging Hezbollah to carry out terror attacks in Israeli territory, and giving assistance to Palestinian terror organizations.

Peres: Iran is the central problem of the Mideast
Vice Premier Shimon Peres, responding to reports that Tehran sought to foment terrorist attacks in order to foil a Israeli-Palestinian truce, said Monday that Iran constitutes the principal problem of the Middle East, and the center for terrorism in the region.

Maariv newspaper reported Monday that Iran had "made a decision to do everything in order to torpedo an understanding between the sides." Since the relative calm in the West Bank and Gaza began, activists of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah "have flooded the territories with demands that terrorm attacks be launched," the daily said.

"Iran is the problem of the Middle East," Peres said.

"It is a group of people who have freed themselves from speaking the truth, who think that the means justify the ends, and who hide everything they do," he told Army Radio.

"It is the center of terrorism in the Middle East. It is trying to create a nuclear option with a religious coloration."