Jerusalem: Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz warned on Saturday that Israel will not tolerate a "nuclear option" for Iran, while reaffirming his commitment to diplomacy in the nuclear standoff.
"We are giving priority at this stage to diplomatic action but in any case we cannot tolerate a nuclear option for Iran and we must prepare ourselves," Mofaz said at a symposium in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.
"We must develop the option of our defense with all that implies," Mofaz said without providing further details.
"We must treat the (Iranian) threat responsibly and with utmost seriousness," Mofaz said, renewing accusations that Tehran was supporting "terrorism" by funding militant groups.
"Iran gives (Lebanese Shiite group) Hezbollah 100 million dollars per year, and part of this money goes to Palestinian terrorist groups," he said.
"In addition, Iran is the primary source of money for Islamic Jihad which committed the majority of suicide attacks against Israel last year."
The defense minister's remarks came after interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday that Israel would not let anyone who threatened its existence obtain weapons of mass destruction.
"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.
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."
Iran faces the threat of being referred to the UN Security Council for resuming sensitive nuclear fuel research work that Israel and the Western powers fear would give the regime the know-how to build a bomb.
Tehran insists such work is legal given it has signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has branded atomic weapons "un-Islamic".
Like Mofaz, Olmert also stressed that a diplomatic solution was still possible.
Mofaz blamed arch enemies Iran and Syria on Friday for a Palestinian suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that wounded 19 and has escalated tension just days before a legislative election in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Iran said on Saturday that the allegations were baseless.
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