Defense Minister and leader of Blue and White party Benny Gantz speaks to Yamina leader Naftali Bennett during a special session of the Knesset whereby Israeli lawmakers elect a new president, at the plenum in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem June 2, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

An Israeli government source on Monday referred to Iran’s current rate of enrichment of uranium as “dizzying and worrisome,” as Prime Minister Naftali Bennett prepares to visit US President Joe Biden later this week with the subject of Iran’s nuclear program set to be high on the agenda.

The source told Israeli news site N12 that Iran is now at “the most advanced point in its nuclear program, at least from the point of view of enrichment.”

“We have to see how all of us intend to deal with this issue,” they said.

Bennett, the source said, believes that “the Iranian regime is at its most extreme point since 1979” — when the Islamic regime overthrew the Shah and seized control of the country.

In Bennett’s assessment, said the source, the regime’s choice of hardline extremist Ebrahim Raisi as its new president shows that it is now dominated by the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The source also sharply criticized former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to the Iran issue, saying, “We received a very difficult inheritance” and that Iran’s nuclear program is now more advanced than ever “after all the photo-ops.”

The prime minister is expected to present Biden with a coordinated strategic plan to counter Iran when he meets with the president, noting that “Iran’s regional aggression is in every place: at sea, in the air, and on the ground … this is a big challenge, very big, but it is also a very big opportunity.”

The Israeli source was optimistic about cooperation between Israel and the US on the issue, saying that the current connections between the two governments are “very good.”

Despite the current crisis in Afghanistan, the source said, which is monopolizing the Biden administration’s attention, the White House is nonetheless placing Bennett’s visit high on its list of priorities.