Ashkenazi: Israel can handle outcomes of Iran strike

Ynetnews – Former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said Sunday that Israel can handle the outcomes of a military strike on Iran. "We've worked long and hard to prepare ourselves," he said at a Jerusalem Post conference in New York.

Former Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin, who also spoke at the conference, echoed Ashkenazi's statements saying that Israel can mount an attack on its own, without US assistance and can handle the consequences.

If all other options fail, Israel will have to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, Yadlin said. Once a top Air Force commander Yadlin explained that an attack on Iran is preferable to an Iranian nuclear weapon.

Earlier on Sunday, Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed the conference saying that Iran has yet to cross the "red line" as defined by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when speaking in front of the UN.

According to Olmert, the Iranian nuclear program has not been making progress in years, and the extent of the threat has been exaggerated.

Olmert further predicted that Syrian President Bashar Assad might suffer a fall, saying it was a matter of time before he would be toppled.

The conference also hosted former Mossad chief Meir Dagan who claimed that Assad was not the one who ordered the use of chemical weapons. He added that Russia will continue to support the Syrian regime as it holds a crucial naval base in Syria.

Dagan backed Olmert's statements saying he had not changed his mind about an Israeli strike on Iran.