“An aerial attack against Iran’s nuclear reactors would be foolish”

An Israel Air Force attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities would start a regional war whose end Israel cannot foresee, former Israeli Mossad chief Meir Dagan said on Friday.

“An aerial attack against Iran’s nuclear reactors would be foolish,” Dagan was widely reported in the media as telling a conference of senior faculty at the Hebrew University in occupied Jerusalem on Friday, in his first public remarks since leaving office earlier this year.

“Anyone attacking Iran needs to understand that it could start a regional war which will include missile fire from Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Iranian problem must be made an international problem, and we must continue to work to delay the nuclear program,” he said.

This was the first time Dagan had made his opposition to an Israeli strike against Iran public. In the past he has called for continued covert action against Iran and for investing in opposition groups within the country with the objective of toppling the Islamic regime.

Before leaving office in January, Dagan broke away from earlier predictions and said that in his view, Iran would obtain a nuclear weapon only in 2015.

Israel, he said, would benefit from the removal of Bashar Assad as the ruler of Syria, which could lead to a stop in the flow of weaponry to Hezbollah. Iran’s influence over the region would also be curbed, he said.

“Assad and the Alawite elite will fight until the end since they do not have an alternative. It is either win or die, and they understand that,” he said.

CONDEMNATIONS AND PRAISES
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday morning commented on Dagan's statements, saying that Dagan is a man with many rights who has contributed greatly to the state, but that he should not have shared his thoughts with the public.

"I'm not sure his statements are correct, and if we're dealing with intelligence issues, it is not right to share those statements with the public," Barak said.

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz also said that it was unfortunate that Dagan's comments were made in public.

In contrast to Barak and Steinitz's comments, two former Mossad chiefs Danny Yatom and Efraim Halevy said that statements made by Dagan were appropriate for the public to hear.

Yatom told Israel Radio that on critical security issues, the Mossad chief should, and even must, share his opinion after he has finished his term. Halevy expressed similar sentiments to Yatom, saying that it is appropriate for a former Mossad head to make comments after he leaves his position if there are things that are important for the public to know.