As Egypt and Saudi Arabia press ahead with their goals of developing nuclear weapons programmes, concern over Iran's nuclear development continues to mount. It seems the European Union has given up on hopes that President Ahmadinejad can be persuaded to back down over the nuclear crisis. A document on the negotiations with Iran has been compiled by the High Representative for the European Common, Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, and forwarded to the heads of the 27 member nations, stating that the EU expects Iran at some time to perfect the Uranium enrichment process to a level where a nuclear bomb could be produced. 

Quote: "The FT said it had seen the conclusions of the "reflection paper", dated February 7 and circulated to the EU's 27 member states ahead of a foreign ministers' meeting on Monday. "At some stage we must expect that Iran will acquire the capacity to enrich uranium on the scale required for a weapons program," the FT quoted the document as saying. "In practice ... The Iranians have pursued their program at their own pace, the limiting factor being technical difficulties rather than resolutions by the UN or the International Atomic Energy Agency. "The problems with Iran will not be resolved through economic sanctions alone."

This will no doubt be bad news for Israel, who was relying on efforts by the European Union and the international community, to prevent Iran from obtaining the technology to build a nuclear weapon. It is believed that if Iran ever developed a nuclear weapon, the first target of choice for President Ahmadinejad would be Tel-Aviv. US President Bush has downplayed the idea of a US strike against Iran, stating that there is still a chance to resolve the crisis through diplomacy.

Quote: ""The Iranian people are good, honest, decent people and they've got a government that is belligerent, loud, noisy, threatening - a government which is in defiance of the rest of the world and says `We want a nuclear weapon,"' Bush said. "So our objective is to keep the pressure so rational folks will show up and say it's not worth the isolation."

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that in regards to Iran, "Israel will know what to do". Israel tested its Arrow II interceptor missile at night for the first time on Sunday. The test occurred the day before the anniversary of the Iranian revolution. The Bible says of the sons of Issachar, that they had "understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do", 1st Chronicles 12:32. When the Gog invasion of Israel comes, perhaps it will be that God will raise up men in Israel who will be gifted with this knowledge, and who will once again save the Middle East from the brink of nuclear devastation - at least in the short term.

Quote: "On Sunday night IAI employees watched live footage of the experiment, and when the Arrow hit its target – a Black Sparrow missile dropped from an IAF jet – they broke out in cheers and applause. After a brief celebration of their success, they began to analyse the technical data of the test results. The goal of the experiment was to examine the missile under extreme conditions which imitated an actual attack scenario, Weiss said.

Ezekiel 39:3-6 
And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that [is] with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and [to] the beasts of the field to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken [it], saith the Lord GOD. And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I [am] the LORD.

Source YNet News, Jerusalem Post, YNet News