A former CIA operative says Israel is likely to strike Iran before the Palestinian Authority attempts to win membership at the United Nations this September.

Robert Baer spent 21 years in the Middle East, including Syria – now in the grip of a budding civil war – and Lebanon, under the thumb of the Hizbullah terrorist organization. He told listeners in Los Angeles while being interviewed on KPFK Radio last Tuesday that recent public comments by former Mossad director Meir Dagan were very revealing.

Among other remarks, Dagan had warned that an Israeli attack on Iran could lead to a regional war.

Baer said that Dagan's comments, criticized by many lawmakers in Israel, “tell us with near certainty that [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu is planning an attack, and inasmuch as I can guess when it's going to be, it's probably going to be in September, before a [U.N. General Assembly] vote on the Palestinian state.”

The retired CIA operative said he did not agree with Dagan's assessment, however, and opined that a regional war was unlikely.

Nevertheless, he noted that there is a “warning order” inside the Pentagon to prepare for conflict with Iran. “We've started to look at Iran's targets in Iraq and across the border,” he said.

He predicted that Israel would most likely attack the Natanz nuclear facility and “a couple of others to degrade their capabilities.”