Iran protesting threats from Israeli official, report says

(CNN) - Iran's United Nations delegation has sent a letter to the U.N. secretary-general and Security Council, protesting an Israeli official's threat that the Jewish state would attack Iran over its possible nuclear weapons development program, according to Iran's state-run media.

The letter states that "the Israeli regime has been emboldened due to carelessness and silence of the Security Council," Islamic Republic News Agency reported Saturday.

The letter was a reaction to a story printed Friday by Israel's largest mass-circulation daily, which quotes Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz as saying, "If Iran continues its program to develop nuclear weapons, we will attack it."

"The window of opportunity has closed. The sanctions are not effective," added Mofaz, who was born in Iran in 1948. "There will be no alternative but to attack Iran in order to stop the Iranian nuclear program."