Israeli Intelligence Chief: Iran Can't Produce Nuclear Weapons in Short Term

The head of Israeli military intelligence (known as AMAN), Tamer Hayman, said today, Saturday, that Iran cannot acquire nuclear weapons in the short term.

Hayman added that Tehran is likely to try to exhaust long negotiations with the West as she moves forward with uranium enrichment.

In an interview with the Israeli "Walla" website, Hayman described Iran's enriched uranium levels as "alarming", stressing that Tehran still has a long way to go before it acquires an effective nuclear bomb that could threaten Israel.

He said that the Iranians have 3 options, either to return to the previous 2015 nuclear agreement, or to proceed with an unprecedented challenge, including the pursuit of armaments and the continuation of enrichment, or to go to an agreement through which they achieve much of what was achieved in the past.

Hayman revealed that Israel has a practical and reliable military option towards Iran and its nuclear program in addition to economic tools, affirming the need to take Iran in the direction that Israel wants, along with diplomacy, and to reach a better agreement.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, "Iran has crossed all red lines in its nuclear program and pledged that Israel will not allow Tehran to acquire a nuclear weapon."

Bennett told the United Nations General Assembly days earlier  that Iran seeks to dominate the Middle East "under a nuclear umbrella."

"Words do not stop centrifuges and we will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon."

The Iranian authorities called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to condemn the "Israeli terrorist attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities."

The Iranian IAEA delegate in Vienna, Kazem Gharibabadi, said in a television interview, that if the agency "is going to carry out monitoring work, it must act responsibly and explicitly condemn terrorist attacks on Iranian facilities."

He confirmed the need to "prevent America and its Western allies from the terrorist acts carried out by the Zionist entity (Israel) if they want to continue the agency's supervision and its acts of oversight work in Iran.”