Israel threatens strike on Iran if Tel Aviv targeted

Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman, in an interview with BBC radio, has said that Israel would consider an attack on Tel Aviv by Hizbullah as being authorised by specific orders from Iran and refused to rule out an attack on Tehran in response.

Given that there will be no ceasefire in Lebanon for the foreseeable future - notwithstanding Bush and Blair's satisfaction with the current draft UN resolution - the potential for the escalation of the conflict into a regional war involving Iran and Syria increases by the day - and with no voice of moderation coming out of Washington things can only get worse.

The British Ambassador to the UN - Emyr Jones Perry - has just stated in an interview on Radio 4 "We cant in this resolution deny any state the right of self defense" - as we said earlier, Israel considers everything it does in Lebanon as 'defensive' - and as Perry makes clear the resolution will not stand in the way. It's also interesting that Perry said that they couldn't deny any 'state' the right to self defense - which does not preclude his attempt to deny Hizbullah that right - as is clear in the draft resolution.