Israel ready to answer ‘threat’ within months

Israel could launch an air strike against Iran within nine months in an attempt to slow Tehran’s progress toward building a nuclear weapon, according to a former senior White House aide.

Dennis Ross, a veteran diplomat and expert on the Middle East, said Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, would not necessarily feel restrained by objections from President Barack Obama.

His remarks came as Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Israel’s chief of military intelligence, said Israel was convinced Iran had enough radioactive material to produce four nuclear bombs. “Iran is very actively pursuing its efforts to develop its nuclear capacities, and we have evidence that they are seeking nuclear weapons,” he said.

With anxiety about an Israeli attack spreading, Nick Clegg, Britain’s deputy prime minister, said: “I worry that there will be a military conflict and that certain countries might seek to take matters into their own hands.”

Britain, he said, had been attempting to demonstrate “that there are very tough things we can do which are not military steps to place pressure on Iran.”

Ross, who left the U.S. National Security Council in November but is still consulted by the White House, told The Telegraph: “The Israelis view this ‘Iranian threat’ in existential terms. If the Israelis feel this is an existential threat it doesn’t matter what anybody says to them. They could do it unilaterally.”

Speculation has mounted inside Israel that Netanyahu could give the order for a strike against Iranian facilities as early as the summer, and so risk retaliation by Iran or terrorist groups in its pay against Israeli, U.S. and possibly other Western targets.