The head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency said today Iran's nuclear programme had become, for the first time, a threat to Israel's very survival.
"Our assessment is that the Iranians will continue to develop their nuclear weapons programme, which for the first time poses a threat to the existence of the state of Israel," Mr Meir Dagan told lawmakers in parliament.
Mr Dagan noted that Iran has put tens of billions of dollars into their nuclear programme "which has no justification unless they plan to arm themselves," and has developed a long-range surface-to-surface missile system.
The remarks were the latest from Israeli officials warning of the Iranian nuclear threat. Last week, Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said Iran's nuclear programme could reach "the point of no-return" within a year, unless there was strong international pressure to stop it.
The United States has said it wants the International Atomic Energy Agency board, which meets on Thursday, to declare Iran has not complied with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and report it to the UN Security Council for sanctions.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said today Iran had been honest so far about its nuclear programme and he hoped it would not be reported to the Security Council for possible sanctions.
In 1981, Israel launched a lightning air strike and destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor's core, saying Baghdad was trying to develop nuclear weapons.