Yossi Cohen
Yossi CohenReuters

Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen has warned that Israel must be prepared for all scenarios, and that a military strike on Iran must remain on the table.

Cohen's warning comes just ahead of the resumption of talks on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna on Monday.

"An independent attack on nuclear sites, if Iran goes that route, endangering our existence, needs to be and must be on the table - unequivocally," Cohen told Ynet.

Cohen explained to Ynet what Israel sees as the differences between a reasonable agreement and one which would be very dangerous.

"A good agreement will be able to prevent Iranian achievements towards the bomb, and a horrible agreement, like what was signed in the past, will not be able to do that perfectly," Cohen stressed.

"The bottom line is that we must take these abilities from Iran, because we cannot take their motivations from them. The Iranian vision and motivation are still there, and so they are insisting, strongly insisting, on maintaining the abilities to develop nuclear abilities - and we must take that from them," he emphasized.

When asked if he trusts the US administration to take Israel's interests into account, Cohen said, "I trust us to demand a good agreement, and I very much hope that the US understands what an agreement which isn't good really means. It has seen recently, especially since [former US] President Donald Trump left the agreement, what Iran is capable of doing if it decides to take paths which are less recommended or less good, from our perspective."

Earlier this week, Cohen told Haaretz that he is "not sure Iran will agree to a deal," since Iran's new President, Ebrahim Raisi, is "much more extreme in his regional views" than his predecessor, Hassan Rouhani.

He also noted that Israel showed "the Americans and the world that Iran lied all the way to the deal. Iran wasn’t coming clean on many issues that were hidden from the world."