By Xinhua
Jerusalem : The Israeli intelligence head has said that Iran will attain offensive nuclear capabilities within three years, local daily Jerusalem Post reported Tuesday on its website.
Meir Dagan, head of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad made the assessment in a report presented to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset (parliament) on Monday, according to the daily.
Iran remains the central strategic threat to Israel not only because it is striving for the attainment of nuclear weapons but also because of its influence on more imminent threats, such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria, Dagan was quoted as saying.
He said that Iran is acting on two tracks: one towards the enrichment of uranium and the other towards manufacturing surface to surface missiles with large payloads, but it had not yet attained full control of the knowledge necessary to produce weapons-grade uranium though it is not far from reaching that benchmark point.
Dagan, meanwhile, denounced that Iran is upgrading its relationship with Syria and supplying the Palestinians, especially those in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, with weapons, technology and training, which would improve the range of the projectiles that the Palestinians could fire into Israel.