Mofaz: Iran is the root of all evil, threat to world peace

Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, a contender to succeed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, denounced his native Iran on Wednesday as "the root of all evil," saying that the Islamic republic's nuclear program constituted a threat to world peace.

Mofaz was speaking a day after he launched a campaign for a party leadership primary election, scheduled for next month, whose winner will be named prime minister.

Opinion polls show that Mofaz, a deputy prime minister and former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff and defense minister, is a frontrunner in the contest to lead the centrist Kadima party but trails Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

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," Mofaz said in a live interview on Israel Radio, adding that Tehran's nuclear program would pose "a threat to Israel's existence".

He urged the West anew to impose stiffer sanctions on Tehran to pressure Iran to stop enriching uranium, which Israel believes is intended to produce atomic weapons.

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," Mofaz said.

The security cabinet met behind closed doors on Wednesday to discuss its intelligence assessments that Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon have been rearming with rockets since the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

Mofaz: I will personally lead peace talks with the Palestinians

In an interview with Haaretz on Tuesday, Mofaz address the ongoing peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, saying "as soon as I have the authority vested in the prime minister, I will lead the negotiations with the Palestinians by myself; I won't let anyone else do it."

"I have more years of experience than others. I will give the negotiations with the Palestinians utmost priority. I will do my best to advance them and to achieve results, and that's a promise. I will put all of my weight behind it and will deal with it personally," he said.

Regarding fears voiced by senior Palestinian officials that Mofaz as prime minister would spell disaster for the peace talks, he said: "I want to remind [people that] the one who signed the Wye River Accord with [the Palestinians] and carried it out was me, as head of the [Israel Defense Forces] Planning Administration. I spent nights with them and solved security, economic and humanitarian issues, both as chief of staff and as defense minister.

"They know me, after all," Mofaz continued, "Abu Mazen [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas], [Palestinian Authority Prime Minister] Salam Fayyad and [PA chief negotiator] Saeb Erekat. They'll say that everything I promised, I delivered. True, I don't go easy in negotiations, I'm not a man of words - I'm a man of actions and I promise to bring results. It won't happen in two days and maybe not in a year, but there will be results."

In his speech Tuesday night next to the Old City of Jerusalem walls, Mofaz said that he, as someone who had seen the sights of war, understands the significance of peace.

"For years I experienced the hardship of war, the suffering of battles and the loss of friends, subordinates and commanders .... Kadima under my leadership will continue the path of previous prime ministers who worked to bring peace and security for Israel," Mofaz said.