Gates quoted as saying "Israel could carry out the operation"
On Feb. 12 2010, Hervé Morin, French defense minister, asked US Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates whether Israel could strike Iran without American support. Gates responded “that he didn’t know if they would be successful, but that Israel could carry out the operation.”
Gates added however that any strike “would only delay Iranian plans by one to three years, while unifying the Iranian people to be forever embittered against the attacker.”