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In first public appearance since leaving post as Mossad chief, Meir
Dagan warns of regional war if Iran is attacked; says fall of Assad
regime would benefit Israel.

Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan
referred to the possibility a future Israeli Air Force attack on Iranian
nuclear facilities as "the stupidest thing I have ever heard" during a
conference held at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on Friday.

Dagan's
presentation during a senior faculty conference was his first public
appearance since leaving his former role as chief of the Mossad at the
end of September 2010.

Dagan said that Iran has a clandestine
nuclear infrastructure which functions alongside its legitimate, civil
infrastructure. It is the legitimate infrastructure, he said, that is
under international supervision by the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA). Any strike on this legitimate infrastructure would be
"patently illegal under international law," according to Dagan.

Dagan
emphasized that attacking Iran would be different than Israel's
successful air strike on Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981. Iran has
scattered its nuclear facilities in different places around the country,
he said, which would make it difficult for Israel to launch an
effective attack.

According to Dagan, there is proof that Iran
has the capability to divert its... >>>