Israel is calling on Europe and the United States to intensify action against Iran, saying that economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation would affect the way the regime behaves.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told the Today programme that Iran "must be stopped" from destabilising the region and building a nuclear weapon, but that Iranian politicians were not "irrational" and so forceful peaceful measures could be made to work.

On the crisis in Syria, Mr Ayalon said that the current regime would not leave power easily. President Assad "can go on butchering his people for a long time", he warned.

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