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Iran has not been deterred from its march to the nuclear bomb, and one-time ally Turkey is drawing closer to the side of Islamic radicals and further from Israel and the West, OC Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin warned on Tuesday at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. 

Teheran, said Yadlin, was responsible for the failure of talks regarding its nuclear program. As a result, the international community was preparing to place new sanctions on Teheran. But "as long as Iran is not under heavy international pressure, Teheran is continuing to advance with its nuclear program," he said. 

"The Iranian technological clock on the way to the nuclear program is continuing to tick at a rate of a number of kilograms [of enriched uranium] every day," he cautioned, reiterating assessments by intelligence community members over the past year that Iran is enriching uranium at a low level, and is "continuing to advance the nuclear program on a wide track. They are also advancing on the military track, but that is being done secretly." 

Israel has no indications in the field that Iran has tried to build additional nuclear facilities to speed up the enrichment, but it was instead developing more technologically advanced centrifuges to put in its existing facilities. The more advanced centrifuges, said Yadlin, would accomplish the same purpose as building additional facilities. 

Although he did not mention the recent incident involving Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and Turkish Ambassador Oguz Celikkol, Yadlin said that "beyond the specific tension, one must understand that the distancing between the two countries is more significant and is related to strategic topics and shared interests. 

"In the past, Turkey had ambitions of becoming closer to the West, beyond its acceptance into NATO," Yadlin said. "They wanted to be part of the European market, and they thought that relations with Israel would help them advance in the American market. But then they received a cold shoulder from the Europeans and did not achieve what they wanted. In light of that, they changed their policies and are currently drawing away from secularism and going in a more radical direction. There are still joint strategic interests shared by Turkey and Israel, but it is not the same strategic proximity that they once shared." 

Ankara and Jerusalem have also parted ways, he said, regarding their shared neighbor, Syria. In the '90s, Turkey saw Syria as an enemy state, a position shared by Israel. But in the ensuing years, Ankara-Damascus relations have warmed, and the two countries have since settled the key disagreements between them. 

A week after Israel and Turkey stepped back from the brink of a rupture in relations, senior diplomatic officials from the countries met on Tuesday to discuss ways to "deepen and widen" the relationship, according to the Foreign Ministry. 

The ministry put out a statement saying that director-general Yossi Gal held high-level strategic talks with his counterparts in Ankara on Tuesday, and - among other issues - discussed the possibility of reciprocal high-level visits. It has been months since a senior Turkish minister has come to Israel. 

Turkey's envoy Celikkol, whose public dressing-down by Ayalon was a major factor in the diplomatic crisis, took part in the talks. It was agreed that the next round of strategic talks would take place in Israel in May. 

Yadlin also referred to the situation on the northern border, arguing that Hizbullah recognizes that war with Israel does not enjoy popular support today on the Lebanese street, but is trying to carry out a high-profile assassination in reprisal for the death of top operative Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus in 2008. Hizbullah, which Yadlin described as "Iran's spearhead in south Lebanon," was different in this regard from other key international terrorist networks, such as al-Qaida and Islamic Jihad, which are focusing their energy on attacks that would result in mass deaths of Israelis.