Sarkozy Says Iran Takes `Risk,' Provoking Israeli

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Iran's nuclear program may provoke an attack by Israel, urging the Islamic republic to accept international inspections.

``Iran is taking a major risk in continuing its process of obtaining nuclear weapons, which we are certain is happening,'' Sarkozy said today in Damascus, Syria. ``One day, whatever the Israeli government is, we can imagine ourselves one morning with an Israel that would have attacked. That would be a disaster.''

Sarkozy is using the meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an Iranian ally, to press efforts to convince Tehran that it should cease its uranium-enrichment program and give full access to international inspectors. The French president is trying to deepen France's political influence in the Middle East and renewed Europe's ties with Syria after Assad's help in ending an 18-month-long political deadlock in Lebanon in May.

The ``fallout would be disastrous'' from any military strike against Iran, Assad said last night in a press conference with Sarkozy.

Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and says it's only developing civil nuclear energy. Israel had no immediate reaction to Sarkozy's statement, Andy David, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said by phone from Jerusalem.

Full Inspections

``It's a problem that Iran continues'' uranium enrichment, Sarkozy said. The International Atomic Energy Agency ``should at least be allowed to carry out full inspections, and then,'' Iran's ``good faith would be proven; and Syria can play an important role to convince'' Iran to accept full inspections by the international community.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz said last month in Washington that Iran's nuclear development program poses an ``unacceptable'' danger to Israel and warned that ``all options are on the table.''

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that Iran is more of a global threat than a specific problem for Israel, expressing hope that the U.S. and Europe will defuse the conflict through diplomacy.

Sarkozy and Assad met today as part of a four-way summit with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

Hariri Killing

Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy's predecessor, cut ties to Syria following the assassination of his friend, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, in 2005. A United Nations investigation into the killing implicated Syrian officials. Syria has denied any involvement.

Sarkozy has pushed to end Syria's isolation in hopes that engaging Assad will help advance the cause of Middle East peace. Syria has started indirect peace talks with Israel, and Assad said today that he expects France, Turkey and Qatar to encourage the U.S. to sponsor possible direct negotiations between Syria and Israel.

Turkish leader Erdogan, whose country is mediating the indirect talks, said the negotiations should resume once a political crisis in Israel is over. Talks have hit a snag after the resignation of the chief Israeli negotiator and elections in Israel that will replace Prime Minister Olmert who plans to resign to defend himself in a corruption investigation.

Those talks aim to resolve the future of the Golan Heights as a precursor to a broader peace agreement between the two countries. Israel has occupied the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau, since capturing the territory in the 1967 war.

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