Israel believes Iran will not be able to produce a nuclear bomb before 2015 and a top Israeli official has counselled against pre-emptive military strikes, intelligence assessments published on Friday showed. Given in a briefing by Mossad director Meir Dagan upon his retirement on Thursday, the assessments pointed to new Israeli confidence in US-led sanctions and covert action designed to discourage or delay Tehran's uranium enrichment programme.
They were also in line with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's circumspection - echoing misgivings voiced more publicly by the Obama administration - about resorting to force against Iran, which denies seeking nuclear arms and has vowed to retaliate against Israel and US interests for any such attack. "Iran will not achieve a nuclear bomb before 2015, if that," Dagan said, according to a transcript obtained by Reuters.
Comments
Comments are closed.