Iran will achieve nuclear weapons capability "in the near future," said Major General Moshe Kaplinsky, deputy chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, on Friday.

But Kaplinsky, who said that he based this assessment on information obtained by the defense establishment, declined to give a more specific time frame, noting that analysts worldwide disagree on precisely when this will happen.

Kaplinsky, who was speaking at a conference of mayors that took place on Kibbutz Ma'aleh Hahamisha, said that a nuclear Iran would constitute an existential threat to Israel. Iran, he added, has made a strategic decision to obtain nuclear weapons capability, and all of its maneuvering with the international community is aimed solely at buying time to achieve this goal.

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The combination of nuclear weapons and Tehran's existing long-range surface-to-surface missiles would also enable Iran to threaten all of Europe, Kaplinsky noted.

Iran, he said, is trying to turn Syria into a client state, and is also deepening its involvement in other countries in the region - inter alia, by increasing its aid to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. This aid includes money, weapons and military training.

"The deeper the connection among Hezbollah, Syria, Iran and Hamas, the more we need to worry," Kaplinsky said.

Hezbollah, he added, is continuing to rearm, with Syria's assistance, and both Hezbollah and Syria are preparing for the possibility of another outbreak of war in Lebanon.

Senior IDF officers told Haaretz that the IDF is also continuing to prepare for the possibility of a new outbreak of fighting in the north this coming summer. Hezbollah, they added, is making a major effort to acquire long-range rockets to replace those that the IDF destroyed during this past summer's fighting in Lebanon.