Israel could attack Iranian nuclear sites within two or three years, the country's defence minister said, in an unusually specific threat increasing the tension between the two countries and raising fears of another global war.
Israeli minister Benny Gantz told a cohort of graduating air force cadets this month that they could be jetting off to attack Iranian nuclear sites by 2024 or 2025.
It comes as tensions between Iran and Israel grow after the countries have been in a Cold War-style conflict for years.
Experts say Iran could potentially raise the fissile purity of its uranium to weapons-grade in short order. But building a deliverable warhead would take it years, they say - an estimate echoed by an Israeli military intelligence general this month.
'In two or three years, you may be traversing the skies eastward and taking part in an attack on nuclear sites in Iran,' Defence Minister Benny Gantz told the graduating cadets in a speech.
For more than a decade, Israel has issued veiled threats to attack its arch-enemy's nuclear facilities if it deems world powers' diplomacy with Tehran a dead end.
But a specific timeframe has not been mentioned previously, raising fears that Israel is toughening its rhetoric.
Some experts doubt Israel has the military clout to deliver lasting damage to Iranian targets that are distant, dispersed and well-defended.
The Israeli military intelligence forecast for 2023 is that Iran 'will continue on its current path of slow progress' in the nuclear realm, according to Israel Hayom newspaper on Sunday.
'Iran will only change its policies if extreme sanctions are imposed on it; then it could decide to accelerate enrichment to military grade,' said the report, which a military spokesperson confirmed as citing genuine intelligence assessments.
Under an ambiguity policy designed to deter surrounding foes while avoiding provocations that can spur arms races, Israel neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weaponry.
Scholars believe it does, having acquired the first bomb in late 1966.
Israel, led by PM Benjamin Netanyahu, is thought to have significant military power, having just last week allegedly wounded Syrian soldiers in strikes near Damascus. There was no comment on the allegations from Israel.
Unlike Iran, Israel is not a signatory to the voluntary Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970, which offers access to civilian nuclear technologies in exchange for the forswearing of nuclear weaponry.
The latest global provocation comes as the world is already on the brink of international war amid war in Ukraine.
There have been fears, fuelled by threats of using nuclear weapons from the Russian president, that the war could escalate into a larger, World War III-style conflict.
Tensions in the Middle East have been high for decades, and the failure to secure a renewal of the nuclear treaty could prove a turning point in relations between Iran and the west.
Matters are not helped by fierce unrest in Iran with mass protests against the government and police following the death of Mahsa Amini in September.
Iran has been forced to disband its so-called 'morality police' in order to try and quell protests, but Israeli experts believe the regime will survive the resistance.
But despite troubles at home, it is thought to have supplied Russia with military-grade drones to help it in its invasion of Ukraine.
Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Russia of using Iranian-made drones to carry out attacks against Ukraine in the months-long conflict, causing significant damage to civilian and energy infrastructure.