The Zionist military chief toned down the rhetoric over Iran’s nuclear program on Wednesday, describing the Iranian leadership as "very rational" and unlikely to take the decision to build a bomb.

The Zionist military chief toned down the rhetoric over Iran's nuclear program on Wednesday, describing the Iranian leadership as "very rational" and unlikely to take the decision to build a bomb.

Speaking to the left-leaning Zionist daily Haaretz, Lt. General Benny Gantz said Iran was systematically approaching the point at which it would be able to decide on whether to build a bomb, but had not yet made that decision.

"It still hasn't decided yet whether to go the extra mile," he said.

So far, the Zionist entity and Washington do not believe that Tehran has actually taken the decision to develop a nuclear bomb, a decision which would require the ability to quickly produce weapons-grade uranium.

The Iranian leadership was made up of "very rational people," he said, and the international regime of hard-hitting sanctions was "starting to bear fruit."

"If Iran goes nuclear it will have negative dimensions for the world, for the region, for the freedom of action Iran will permit itself,” Gantz said, expressing that freedom of action might be expressed against his entity, via the force Iran will project toward its clients: Hezbollah in Lebanon, Islamic Jihad in Gaza, alongside the potential for an existential threat.

Zionist Defense Minister Ehud Barak was on Wednesday also taking a somewhat softer line on Iran, saying it had "not yet decided to manufacture atomic weapons" also suggesting the sanctions could work.

"If the Americans, and the Europeans and we ourselves are determined, there is a change of stopping the Iranians before they acquire the atomic bomb."

The enemy entity of Zionism and much of the West suspect Iran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover for a weapons drive -- a charge which Tehran vehemently denies.

Zionist officials have repeatedly warned that a nuclear Iran would pose an existential threat to the Jewish state, and have refused to rule out a pre-emptive strike to prevent it from happening.

But the language used by Gantz was far from the fiery rhetoric which has been used by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who last week said that anyone who refused to acknowledge the Iranian threat had learned nothing from the Nazi Holocaust during World War II.

The attempt by both Gantz and Barak to tone down the rhetoric on Iran comes after a spate of media reports suggesting a division within the Israeli leadership over how to handle the Iranian issue.

However, analysts believe that a decision to attack Iran could not be taken without the full support of the Zionist defense minister and most of the security cabinet, as well as the backing of the 'Israeli' military and the Mossad spy service.