The head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau: We won't let Iran go nuclear

        Israel will not tolerate a nuclear Iran, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, the head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau, has stressed to The Jerusalem Post in an unusually hard-hitting interview. "The Iranians are determined to obtain nuclear weaponry," said Gilad. "Iran is controlled by an ideology and a regime that has set itself the goal to be rid of Israel." While US President-elect Barack Obama has said he will engage in tough diplomacy to try to deter the Iranians, Gilad said flatly that "diplomatic pressure against a state this determined can slow processes, but cannot halt them." As for economic pressure, that might work if Iran were facing "total isolation," he said. "But that's not happening." The economic pressure was "much more impressive than is understood," he noted. "But the fact is, it is not preventing the dangerous process of a nuclear Iran." On Wednesday, Iran announced it had test-fired a two-stage, solid-fuel rocket with a 1,200-mile range that could reach Israel. Said Gilad: "They will continue. The picture is clear. They are building more missiles. They're dealing with uranium enrichment." For Israel, he said, "this is indeed a situation that we can't tolerate. What can be done about it? First of all, we still stick with the diplomatic option, and all the options are on the table, as President [George W.] Bush said." Beyond that, he said, "I can't go into details... Elaborating directly assists the enemy in its war against Israel. The test will be in the result - whether we are able or not to prevent this grave threat. "The more we talk about it - however seductive that may be - the more we brag, the more we weaken our capacity to achieve. We cannot accept a nuclear Iran. We cannot be reconciled to it."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Islamic Republic was not looking to wage war against any nation, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported on Thursday. Speaking to bereaved families and war veterans in the northern province of Mazandaran, the president said "the logic of the Iranian nation has (baffled) great powers and enemies of Iran." The government mouthpiece further quoted Ahmadinejad as saying that the "era of hegemony" has come to an end and that the world's "great powers" were on the verge of collapse. On Wednesday Iran declared that it had test-fired a new generation of surface-to-surface missiles, named Sejil, with a 2,000-kilometer (1,200-mile) range, capable of reaching Israel and US bases in the Gulf. (08,05)