Israel set to give US last warning on Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to deliver an ultimatum to US President Barack Obama on stopping Iran from "acquiring" nuclear weapons, a media report said on Sunday.

"At Monday's meeting between Netanyahu and Obama the Israeli prime minister will deliver a stark warning," the Telegraph reported quoted sources in Jerusalem. Both leaders are meeting in US capital Washington.

Netanyahu effectively brings with him an ultimatum, demanding that unless the president makes a firm pledge to use US military force to prevent Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb, Israel may well take matters into its own hands within months, it said.

"The threat is not an idle one. According to sources close to the Israeli security establishment, military planners have concluded that never before has the timing for a unilateral military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities been so auspicious," the paper said.

The report comes two days after Obama said that he would order the US military to destroy Iran's nuclear programme as a final option, if economic sanctions fail to compel Tehran to shelve its nuclear ambitions.

"I don't bluff," Obama had said delivering his most explicit threat to Tehran to keep away from nuclear weapons, warning that "all options are on the table" and that the final option is the "military component."

It is an assessment based on the unforeseen consequences of the Arab Spring, particularly in Syria, which has had the result of significantly weakening Iran's clout in the region.

Israel has always known that there would be an enormous cost in launching an attack on Iran, with the Islamist state able to retaliate through its proxy militant groups Hamas and Hizbollah, based in Gaza and Lebanon respectively, and its ally Syria.