Israeli Ehud Olmert calls for an end to war rhetoric against Iran

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Former Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert has joined the increasing loud calls for an end to aggressive rhetoric against Iran.

Olmert told Israel’s Channel 10 TV from New York on Sunday that there is no reason to talk about a military strike on Iran.

His remarks came two days after former director of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security service, slammed the incumbent Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Military Affairs Ehud Barak for their war-mongering policies.

Yuval Diskin accused Netanyahu and Barak of having their judgment of Iran clouded by “feelings and not reality”.

Speaking at a meeting with residents of the Kfar Sava city in central Israel on Friday, Diskin had said the pair were not worthy of leading the regime as they were making decisions “based on messianic feelings,” adding, "My major problem is that I have no faith in the current leadership, which must lead us in an event on the scale of war with Iran or a regional war…I don't believe in either the prime minister or the defense minister. I don't believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on messianic feelings.”

His comments have caused outrage within the Israeli regime, showing that Tel Aviv has been deeply divided on certain political issues.

Israel -- the only entity in the Middle East believed to possess hundreds of nuclear warheads-- accuses Iran of developing atomic arms.

Washington and Tel Aviv have time and again threatened Tehran with the "option" of a military strike against its civilian nuclear facilities.

Iran argues that, as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has every right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

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