Ex-CIA head urges Israel to wait a year or two to decide on Iran strike

Israel should wait a year or two before considering a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, former Central Intelligence Agency director Michael Hayden said this week during a visit to Tel Aviv.

Speaking to Haaretz, Hayden said on Monday that Iran probably won’t be able to develop a nuclear weapon until 2013 or 2014, and a decision to strike should be deferred until then. He also expressed doubts that Israel could knock out Iran’s facilities on its own, saying that there were elements required “which only the US Air Force would be able to do.”

Hayden, who was CIA head when Israel reportedly destroyed Syria’s nuclear reactor in a pinpoint 2007 strike, said that while he did not “underestimate” Israel’s military capability, a unilateral strike might “only set the Iranians back some time and actually push them to do that which it is supposed to prevent, getting nuclear weapons.”

“While it is probably true that the so-called ‘window’ regarding effective action is closing, there is still some time, as real decisions are to be made in 2013 or 2014,” he added.

Hayden, in Israel for a security conference, was recently named as part of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s national security advisory team.