Jerusalem, Nov 6: Israeli President Shimon Peres has warned that an attack on Iran was “more and more likely,” days before a report by the UN nuclear watchdog on Iran's nuclear programme.
He told Israeli private television's second channel: “The intelligence services of the different countries that are keeping an eye on (Iran) are worried and putting pressure on their leaders to warn that Iran is ready to obtain the nuclear weapon.”
“We must turn to these countries to ensure that they keep their commitments ... this must be done, and there is a long list of options,” Peres declared.
Israel on Thursday completed a major civil defence drill in the Tel Aviv region aimed at simulating a response to conventional and non-conventional missile attacks, the military said.
Israel has also successfully tested what local media called a “ballistic missile”, which a defence ministry official described to AFP as a long-scheduled “test firing of the rocket-propulsion system”.
On Wednesday, Haaretz newspaper reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak were seeking to win cabinet support for a strike on Iran, which Israel and the West suspect is looking to build an atomic bomb.
Haaretz said no decision had yet been taken on any military strike, and that a November 8 report from the International Atomic Energy Agency nuclear watchdog would have a “decisive effect” on the decision-making process.
