According to Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell:
The Israelis were telling us Iraq is not the enemy – Iran is the enemy
For more information, see Israel Warned US Not to Invade Iraq after 9/11, which explains that Israel did not want Iraq to be attacked, because Israel considered Iran the greater enemy and that attacking Iraq would change the balance of power in favor of Iran.
See also the 07 February 2002 article Israel Emphasizes Iranian Threat:
As Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arrives today for a White House visit, Israeli officials are redoubling efforts to warn the Bush administration that Iran poses a greater threat than the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.
A series of Israeli leaders have carried that message to Washington recently in the hope of influencing a debate that has centered not on Iran but on whether to pursue the overthrow of the Iraqi government. Sharon's visit, however, comes a week after President Bush focused attention on Iran by including it in his State of the Union address as a member of an "axis of evil" with Iraq and North Korea. During meetings here yesterday, including with Vice President Cheney, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer warned of the hazards posed by Iranian support for terrorist groups and development of advanced weapons.
"Today, everybody is busy with Iraq," Ben-Eliezer said in an interview. "Iraq is a problem. . . . But you should understand, if you ask me, today Iran is more dangerous than Iraq."
He pointed to Iran's role in the scheme to smuggle 50 tons of weapons into Palestinian hands. American and Israeli intelligence officials have concluded Iran provided the weapons and worked with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to transport them by sea to Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat's administration. The ship was intercepted by Israeli commandos in the Red Sea a month ago.
Ben-Eliezer stressed his concerns about Iran's pursuit of missiles capable of striking Israel with chemical and biological weapons. He said Iran is on schedule to develop a nuclear bomb by 2005.
When Sharon meets with Bush and other U.S. officials today, he plans to sound the alarm about Tehran's ambitions in Lebanon, according to Israeli officials. Israel has accused Iran of dispatching Iranian Revolutionary Guards to foment anti-Israel activity in Lebanon and of providing thousands of missiles to Hezbollah. Iranian and Lebanese leaders had denied these charges.
