However, it is absurd to suggest as some have done that this is simply a ploy by the present Israeli government to deflect criticism from their handling of the peace process. It is equally absurd to suggest that the key to dealing with the Iranian problem is to make progress on the Arab-Israeli issue. As important as that issue is, the Iranian nuclear weapons problem is a separate problem. And we do not have the luxury of time to wait to deal with it. Moreover, it seriously underestimates the problem if it is viewed only as a threat to Israel's security.
Iranian missiles are a threat to the moderate Arab countries of the Persian Gulf.
And they would be a threat to U.S. forces that might come to defend those countries and to defend vital American interests in the Persian Gulf. In fact, we and our Arab friends in the Gulf are threatened not only by long range missiles with unconventional warheads but even by accurate shorter-range missiles with conventional warheads. It would be very disturbing if it takes Israeli pressure to get the U.S. government to be serious about a problem that threatens us equally if not more. It was perhaps barely understandable in 1981, when Israel took military action against Iraq's nuclear program, that the U.S. failed to recognize that the Iraqi program was a threat to our interests as well as Israel's. After the experience of the Gulf War, however, there can be no excuse for such a mistake.