Furthermore, while Iran’s Shehab-3 ballistic missile is widely treated as its worst threat, not enough attention is focused on the new ground-to-ground Ghadar on which Iran is about to begin production. Its range is estimated at 2,500-3,000 km compared with the Shehab-3’s 1,800km, which is why the Israeli prime minister remarked that Iran was not only threatening Israel.

The Arrow anti-missile system Israeli developed with US assistance was successfully tested against a mock Shehab-3 Friday, Dec. 1. But DEBKAfile’s military experts say it is not up to tackling the Ghadar. According to American intelligence experts, the Chinese miniature missile technology may well be tailored to this new missile.

This Iranian short cut to a nuclear warhead was probably what Gen. Zeevi had in mind when he said Iran was only four months away from its goal.

More disquieting information was brought to Washington in recent days by a member of the Iranian opposition group, Mujaheddin Khalq, whose information on Iran’s nuclear progress obtained by clandestine means has consistently checked out since its reporting began in August 2003.