Israel Warns of Iranian Missile Peril forEurope.

By Telegraph.co.uk

Iran is developing nuclear missiles capable of reaching beyond its enemies = in the Middle East to Europe; President George Bush will be warned when he = visits Israel and the Palestinian territories for the first time since ente= ring the White House.

A senior

The Israeli government is furious about the recent US intelligence assessme= nt which concluded that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2= 003, and hopes to convince the American leader that work is continuing on a= bomb that poses a widespread threat.

In an exclusive interview, Avi Dichter, the Israeli minister of public secu= rity, warned that Iran was developing missiles with a range of more than 1,= 250 miles.

"Iran is a big, strong rich country, and that competition in leading the Mu= slim world is well-known to all Arab and Muslim countries," he said. "Once = you can reach with your missile double the distance between Iran and Israel= , it means there is some farther target. Is it Egypt? Libya? Saudi Arabia? = A European country?"

Dichter said Iran was working to develop missiles with a range that suggest= ed ambitions beyond threatening Israel. He said Israeli officials would war= n Bush that failing to take action would have serious consequences beyond t= he Middle East, where Iran was funding groups, including Hizbullah in Leban= on and Hamas in Gaza.

The Sunday Telegraph revealed last year how Gulf countries, including Saudi= Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, were spending billions of pounds on u= pgrading their armed forces to contain the growing threat from Iran.

Bush, who is due to arrive on Wednesday, hopes to make progress on the Isra= eli-Palestinian peace negotiations launched at the Annapolis summit in Mary= land in late November. But talks have made little or no progress since, wit= h Israeli officials accusing the Palestinians of not doing enough to disman= tle militant groups.

Instead, Israel has prepared a long list of concerns for Bush, including th= ose over the US intelligence estimate and the need for peace talks with Syr= ia.

Dichter said Israel wanted to bring Syria out of the Iranian "axis" of infl= uence towards a peace treaty, which would mirror Israel's 1979 peace agreem= ent with Egypt.

Peace with Syria would reduce Hizbullah=92s influence, force Hamas's leader= -in-exile Khaled Mashaal, who now lives in Damascus, to relocate, and impro= ve Israel's image and standing in the Arab world.

Dichter said that there was almost no hope of an Israeli-Palestinian peace = accord this year, and that a major operation against Hamas and other Islami= st groups in Gaza would eventually be needed.

He added that the Palestinian Authority's loss of Gaza to Hamas in June sho= wed it was not ready to take full control of security in an eventual state,= and that Gaza must be brought back under control before a Palestinian stat= e is created.

The Palestinian Authority has deployed hundreds of extra troops in Nablus a= nd Bethlehem as the start of a crackdown on militant groups, and Dichter's = PA counterpart, Interior Minister Abdel-Razek al-Yahya, said last week it h= ad dismantled the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a violent Fatah offshoot.

Palestinians also argue, however, that their efforts to crack down on milit= ant groups are hampered by Israel's refusal to permit them to be properly e= quipped.