OLMERT: ISRAEL WILL NOT ALLOW IRAN TO HAVE NUKES

Israel will not allow Iran to obtain WMDs: Olmert
Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Iran that Israel would not let anyone who threatened its existence obtain weapons of mass destruction as officials headed to Moscow for talks over Tehran's nuclear programme. In one of his first forays into foreign policy since taking over from the coma-stricken Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Olmert also said he believed a diplomatic solution was possible before Iran was able to obtain nuclear weapons.

"Israel cannot allow in any way or at any stage someone who has such hostile intentions against us to obtain weapons that could threaten our existence," Olmert said in talks with President Moshe Katsav on Tuesday. Israel has come to view the Islamic republic in Tehran as its number one enemy and its fears were heightened when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in October called for the Jewish state to be "wiped off the map."