Israel questions US report of nuclear weapons freeze

Israel moved quickly yesterday to question the US intelligence report that concluded Iran's nuclear weapons programme was frozen, and called for intensified international pressure on the country.

The Israeli Prime Minster, Ehud Olmert, who said the conclusions in the National Intelligence Estimate had already been discussed with Washington, echoed US officials by declaring: "It is vital to pursue efforts to prevent Iran from developing a capability like this." He added: "We will continue doing so along with our friends the United States."

The Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, went further, saying that Iran had probably restarted its nuclear programme. He told Army Radio: "It seems Iran in 2003 halted for a certain period of time its military nuclear programme but as far as we know it has probably since revived it."

Apparently hinting that the Israelis were privy to intelligence not available to the US, Mr Barak, the Labour leader and former prime minister, added: "We are talking about a specific track connected with their weapons-building programme to which the American [intelligence] connection, and maybe that of others, was severed."

While acknowledging that it was possible the new report would reduce the chances of a US strike, Mr Barak said it had been produced in "an environment of high uncertainty" and added: "We cannot allow ourselves to rest just because of an intelligence report from the other side of the earth, even if it is from our greatest friend."

The Israeli media gave prominent coverage yesterday to the NIE conclusions, with Alex Fishman, the military commentator for the country's largest circulation daily, Yedhiot Ahronot, declaring the report "was a blow below the belt to the fight that Israel has been waging in the international arena against the Iranian nuclear programme".

He said Israeli officials were fearful that the report would reduce international pressure on Iran and that they still believed Iran will possess military nuclear capabilities as early as 2009, in contrast to the new US report that concludes they will not do so before 2013.

A front page analysis in the liberal daily Haaretz concluded that "however successful or flawed" the NIE report was, there was a "new dramatic reality" in the "struggle against the Iranian bomb". It added: "The military option, American or Israeli, is off the table, indefinitely."