Former Mossad Director Meir Dagan. Photo: Screenshot via CBS.

Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan has expressed regret over a statement he made last year calling a possible Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities “stupid.” In a recent interview in the Lochem (“Warrior”) magazine, Dagan said he still opposed the idea of Israel’s attacking Iran, but his statement was unfortunate and the result of his being distracted.

Last year, asked what he thought about a potential Israel Air Force attack on nuclear facilities in Iran, Dagan said he thought this was “the stupidest thing I have ever heard.” Dagan said an effective attack on Iran would be difficult because Iranian nuclear facilities were scattered and mobile, and warned that it could trigger war.

Use of the term “stupid” by Dagan prompted Likud Minister Without Portfolio Benny Begin to call Israeli public debate about a possible strike on Iran “reckless abandon.” Begin lashed out at Dagan and said his comments were a “betrayal of trust and an abomination that stem from illusions of grandeur.”