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The man sitting opposite me in a modern office complex in Jerusalem didn’t look well. I’ve seen more healthy faces peering from coffins.

But small wonder he was troubled: he was the senior official in Israel’s foreign ministry responsible for Iran.

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After an extremely pessimistic briefing on the regime’s ambitions in the region, and the impact of even a small nuclear bomb on the state of Israel, I was feeling a bit queasy myself.

It brought to mind a quote in Ari Shavit’s book My Promised Land: “The vitality of our life is astonishing. And yet there is always the fear that one day, daily life will freeze like Pompeii’s.”

Israel is not the only country living under the volcano, as we were reminded when Iran tested ballistic missiles last fall, violating United Nations Security Council Resolution 1929 that prohibited the launch of technology that could carry nuclear weapons.

Iran said the tests were peaceful. But UN analysts are agreed Iran is only interested in developing its ballistic missile capability as a delivery mechanism for nuclear warheads.