An Israeli official was quoted Friday as saying that “attacking Iran in order to stop its nuclear plans will be unavoidable,” a remark that may further escalate tensions between the two countries as leaders continue to lob rhetorical digs at each other.

The official, Shaul Mofaz, is a deputy prime minister and the highest-level official to make such an explicit threat against Iran, which has categorically denied building nuclear weapons while defying pressure from the U.S. and Israel to abandon its uranium enrichment program.

The Guardian:

An Israeli minister has said an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites will be “unavoidable” if Tehran refuses to halt its alleged weapons programme.

In the most explicit threat yet by a member of Ehud Olmert’s government, Shaul Mofaz, a deputy prime minister, said the hardline Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, “would disappear before Israel does”.

“If Iran continues with its programme for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective,” Mofaz, who is also Israel’s transport minister, said in comments published [Friday] by the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

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