"THUGGISH BEHAVIOUR"
Cohen, whose speech alluded to the Palestinians only in the context of threats against Israel from the armed factions, said many Arab countries "cannot stand Iran's thuggish behaviour".
He cited Iran's nuclear programme, assistance for guerrillas in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere and alleged responsibility for a recent spate of sabotage strikes on oil tankers in the Gulf. Iran denies any role in those incidents.
Cohen said Israel's warming of relations with Oman, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited last October, followed "a lengthy covert effort by the Mossad" to seek out closer ties.
He pointed to what he termed "an expanding group of responsible, serious countries" - which he did not name - in the region that have "open channels of communication with Israel", but no formal relations, and cooperate with it in various ways.
With Iran threatening to exceed the limitations of a 2015 deal capping its nuclear projects, and which the United States withdrew from last year, Cohen reaffirmed Israel's policy that it would not allow its arch-foe to get a bomb.
"The Mossad or the State of Israel did not sign the nuclear deal (and) will do everything to ensure that Iran will never have nuclear weaponry," he said.
On Monday, two sources told Reuters Iran had breached the limit of its enriched uranium stockpile set in the 2015 deal, defying a warning by European co-signatories to stick to the deal despite U.S. sanctions.
Iran denies ever seeking to acquire a nuclear bomb.
"Currently, it's about uranium enrichment at a relatively low percentage, and in amounts that are not large. The threat is to step up enrichment and increase the amounts," Cohen said, before news of the enrichment breach.
"Just imagine what will happen if the material stockpiled by the Iranians becomes fissionable, at military-enrichment grade, and then an actual bomb. The Middle East, and then the entire world, will be a different place. Therefore, the world must not allow this to happen."
