Israel is not bluffing when it warns that all options are still on the table and that it may strike Iran's nuclear facilities, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said in an interview with Sky News on Friday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon.
Photo: AP [file]
"The one who's bluffing is Iran, which is trying to play with cards they don't have," Ayalon reportedly said.
The deputy foreign minister's interview came a day after the Guardian reported that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has demanded that Iran explain evidence that it has experimented with advanced nuclear warhead technology.
"All the bravado that we see and the testing and the very dangerous and harsh rhetoric is hiding a lot of weaknesses," Ayalon explained.
Ayalon went on to accuse Iran of using stalling tactics and "buying time" by taking weeks to respond to the UN-brokered nuclear fuel deal.
"If Iranian behavior and conduct continues as they have exhibited so far, it is obvious that their intentions are only to buy time and procrastinate," Ayalon said.
On Monday, Iran asked to modify the West's proposal for Russia and France to turn the Islamic republic's uranium stockpile into nuclear fuel.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, however, urged Teheran to fully accept the offer, as it would not be changed.
"We continue to press the Iranians to accept fully the proposal that has been made, which they accepted in principle," Clinton said.
Iran should accept the deal as it stands, "because we are not altering it," she said.
