Washington, Apr. 2: General David Petraeus, the top US commander in the Middle East, has told the US Congress that Israel could take matters into its own hands vis-à-vis Iran, should that country go ahead with its plans on the nuclear front.

"The Israeli government may ultimately see itself so threatened by the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapon that it would take preemptive military action to derail or delay it," The Jerusalem Post quoted General Petraeus, as saying.

General Petraeus, who appeared before the US Senate''s Armed Services Committee to provide an update on the situation in Afghanistan and the wider region, backed the Obama administration''s diplomatic initiatives as potentially helping to undermine Iran''s bid for greater influence.

"A credible US effort on Arab-Israeli issues that provides regional governments and populations a way to achieve a comprehensive settlement of the disputes would undercut the idea of militant ''resistance,'' which the Iranian regime and extremists organizations have been free to exploit," he assessed.

He also argued that "progress on the Syrian track of the peace process could disrupt Iran''s lines of support to Hamas and Hizbullah."

"Our cooperative efforts with the Arab Gulf states, which include hardening and protecting their critical infrastructure and developing a regional network of air and missile defense systems, can help dissuade aggressive Iranian behavior," he told the senators.

His remarks, part of prepared testimony for the committee, came on the same day that an article in The Atlantic magazine indicated that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was prepared to act unilaterally to prevent Iran from going nuclear. (ANI)