By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY  TEL AVIV, Israel  President Bush had been on Israeli soil just minutes Wednesday when the issue that's bothering the Middle East leaders he is scheduled to meet on his trip was broached: Iran.  "We take your advice to not underestimate the Iranian threat," Israeli President Shimon Peres told Bush at Ben Gurion International Airport. "Iran should not underestimate our resolve for self-defense."  The main mission of Bush's eight-day trip to the Middle East, which began Wednesday, is to nudge peace talks between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors. But the subtext is Iran's regional threat.  In the past several days, Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and national security adviser Stephen Hadley have sought to assure those nations that the United States still considers Iran a danger, despite a U.S. intelligence report last month that concluded Iran's nuclear weapons program was halted in 2003.  "Iran is a threat to world peace," Bush said Wednesday after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at his residence in Jerusalem. "The international community must understand with clarity the threat that Iran represents to world peace."  Rice earlier had made clear that Iran would be a major topic of discussion throughout Bush's trip, which includes stops in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.  "There will be discussions of Iran in Israel, in the Gulf, all around, because Iran is the single most important, greatest threat to the kind of Middle East that we all want to see," she said Tuesday before accompanying Bush on his trip. "It's a supporter of terrorism in Iraq, in Lebanon, in the Palestinian territories. It has nuclear ambitions."  The tough talk on Iran comes after five armed Iranian boats took aggressive action Sunday near three U.S. Navy warships in international waters. Administration officials called it reckless.  "There will be serious consequences if they attack our ships, pure and simple," Bush said in Israel. "My advice to them is, 'Don't do it.' "  The Associated Press reported Wednesday that an unnamed official for Iran's Revolutionary Guards said footage of the incident released Tuesday by the Pentagon was "compiled using file pictures and the audio has been fabricated." State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the claim "just ridiculous."  The National Intelligence Estimate released by the United States last month said Iran continues to enrich uranium and seek longer-range missiles, even if it stopped trying to make a nuclear weapon. That report became the subject of confusion and conspiracy theories in many Middle Eastern nations. In Israel, it was flatly disputed; the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported this week that Defense Minister Ehud Barak would show Bush his nation's "Iran dossier."  The risk for the United States and Israel is that other Arab nations will seek conciliation with Iran rather than confrontation. To stop that from happening, the Bush administration notified Congress last month that it intends to sell about $20 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, while increasing aid to Israel. "We have been reassuring our allies for quite some time now by increasing … their defense capability," Rice said.  Mark Regev, Olmert's spokesman, said the issue of Iran has taken on added importance because officials want to stop Iran's nuclear program in its tracks. So far, the Bush administration and the United Nations Security Council have used economic sanctions as a tactic.  "They don't have a bomb yet," Regev said. "We think their nuclear program is still stoppable."  Said Olmert: "We must do everything possible to thwart them."  The administration wants to solve the situation with Iran diplomatically, but Rice said this week that "the president doesn't take options off the table."  That will be welcomed by the Israelis, said Shlomo Avineri, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem political scientist and former foreign ministry official. "What the Israelis would expect from the United States is a very muscular response" to Iranian aggression, Avineri said.  Conversation guidelines: USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related to this article. Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map.
President Bush opened his first presidential trip to Israel on Wednesday, seeking to build momentum for stalled Mideast peace talks and clear up confusion about whether the United States is serious about confronting Iran about its suspected nuclear...