Israel agrees Iran undecided on nuclear bomb

JERUSALEM -- Despite saber-rattling from Jerusalem, Israeli officials now agree with the U.S. assessment that Tehran has not yet decided on the actual construction of a nuclear bomb, according to senior Israeli government and defense figures.

Even so, there is great concern in Israel about leaving Iran "on the cusp" of a bomb -- explaining why Israel continues to hint at an attack on Iran's nuclear installations before it moves enough of them underground to protect them from Israel's bombs.

Though officials say they accept the more nuanced American view, they warn that it is just a matter of semantics, because an Iran on the verge of being able to build a bomb would still be a danger.

The United States, in a campaign to persuade Israel to call off any attack plan and allow sanctions to persuade Tehran to back down, is playing up its assessment that Iran has not made its final decision.

Several senior Israeli officials who spoke in recent days to The Associated Press said Israel has come around to the U.S. view that no final decision to build a bomb has been made by Iran.

The officials said that is the prevailing view in the intelligence community, but there are also questions about whether Tehran might be hiding specific bomb-making operations.

The concern, they said, is about allowing the Iranian program to reach the point where there is enough enriched weapons-grade material that a bomb could quickly be assembled, within a year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, "Iran, whose leader foments terrorism and violence around the globe and calls for our destruction . . . this regime must never be allowed to have nuclear weapons."