Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has warned that "time is urgently running out" to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
He said Iran’s nuclear program is nearing the stage when it will enter the so-called “immunity zone” when it will be too heavily fortified for a military strike to succeed.
He was speaking on Thursday at the annual Herzliya international policy conference.
The minister was referring to Iran’s recent decision to activate the Fordo enrichment facility which is buried close to 100 meters under a mountain near the city of Qom.
Barak has said in the past that Fordow could not be destroyed in a conventional military strike.
Speaking at the Herziliya Conference, Barak said that there was a consensus around the world that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon and posed a severe threat to the future of the Middle East and particularly to Israel’s security.
He said that the sanctions against Tehran were a “step in the right direction” but that they could not be called a success until they succeeded in obtaining the desired goal, a stop to Iran’s nuclear program.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has published at the end of last year a report saying Iran is carrying out work that could only be related to the future development of an atomic bomb.