'The Iranians are the Root of All Evil'

So says a native Iranian who now happens to be a high-raning Israeli politician.

ISRAELI Cabinet minister Shaul Mofaz, a contender to succeed the prime minister, denounced his native Iran on today as "the root of all evil" and said its nuclear programme constituted a threat to world peace.

Mr Mofaz was speaking a day after he launched a campaign for a party leadership election next month that will lead to the replacement of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Opinion polls show that Mr Mofaz, a deputy prime minister and transport minister, is a frontrunner in the contest to lead the centrist Kadima party but trails Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Mr Olmert, dogged by a corruption probe, said last week he would step down once a successor for the party leadership was chosen.

"The Iranians are the root of all evil," Mr Mofaz said in an interview on Israel Radio, adding that Tehran's nuclear programme would pose "a threat to Israel's existence".

He urged the West anew to impose stiffer sanctions on Tehran to pressure Iran to stop a nuclear programme that Israel believes is intended to produce atomic weapons.

Iran says the developments are for civilian purposes only, to produce energy.

Israel is widely believed to have assembled the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal which experts say comprises as many as 200 warheads.

Israel does not discuss its nuclear capabilities under a "strategic ambiguity" policy designed to ward off enemies while avoiding the sort of provocation that can trigger arms races.

Mr Mofaz, who was born in Tehran before many Iranian Jews moved to the new state of Israel, accused his native country of trying "simply to bide its time," by rejecting Western proposals to stop enriching uranium.

"This has been the Iranian strategy for years, to bide their time and continue with their enrichment," Mr Mofaz said.

Mr Mofaz, a former head of the Israeli military, has been one of Israel's most outspoken ministers against Iran.

'If Iran Continues Its Nuclear Weapons Program, We Will Attack It'

They've been warned. Of course, they'll need our help. There's a sense of urgency, naturally, since if Barack Obama is elected, the last thing he'll do is project military strength.

AN Israeli deputy prime minister today warned Iran would face attack if it pursues what he said was its nuclear weapons program.

"If Iran continues its nuclear weapons program, we will attack it," said Shaul Mofaz, who is also transportation minister.

"Other options are disappearing.

"The sanctions are not effective. There will be no alternative but to attack Iran in order to stop the Iranian nuclear program," Mr Mofaz told the Yediot Aharonot daily.

He stressed such an operation could only be conducted with US support.

Israel: Dump Incompetent Hack ElBaradei

Only at the UN could someone so clueless still be employed.

Perhaps they'll spring into action once we see mushroom clouds over Tel Aviv.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz called Thursday for Mohamed ElBaradei to be removed as head of the UN nuclear watchdog, saying he had turned a blind eye to archfoe Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The call for ElBaradei's dismissal comes just days before the International Atomic Energy Agency is due to publish a new report on Iran's nuclear programme, to serve as a key part of further discussions at the United Nations on whether to impose a third set of sanctions on Tehran.

"The policies followed by ElBaradei endanger world peace. His irresponsible attitude of sticking his head in the sand over Iran's nuclear programme should lead to his impeachment," Mofaz told public radio from Washington.

Mofaz, who heads "the strategic dialogue" between Israel and its main ally the United States, held talks on Wednesday with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

ElBaradei raised the ire of many Israeli officials after telling France's Le Monde newspaper that Iran would need "between three and eight years" to develop a nuclear bomb and that there were was no immediate threat.

Of course, now that the Iranians have 3000 centrifuges up and running, ElBaradei is nowhere to be found.