Former Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit noted that, in his estimation, Israel has less than a year to deal with Iran’s threatening nuclear program. Shavit said in an interview to the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph that Israel must be ready for “a worst-case scenario” and to take “military action” against Iran if need be.

Shavit served in the elite General Staff Reconaissance Unit and as a Mossad operations officer, rising through the ranks to become head of the intelligence service before retiring in 1996. He has been the chairman of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzeliya since 2001.