Ron Prosor, Israel's newly appointed ambassador to the U.K. and one of his country's leading experts on Iran's nuclear program, said that Tehran could enrich enough uranium to make an atomic bomb by 2009 and added that time for resolving the nuclear issue was rapidly running out, The Daily Telegraph reports Thursday.
He told the U.K. daily: "This is a global threat and it requires a global response. It should be made clear that if Iran does not cooperate then military confrontation is inevitable. It is either cooperation or confrontation."
Prosor, who served Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as his senior adviser on Iran, was however noncommittal about the possibility of Israel launching military action.
"There needs to be full verification of what is happening in Iran," said Prosor, who was speaking for the first time since his arrival in London last month. But he said: "In Israel there is a belief that the Iranians are continuing with their nuclear weapons program."