Ex-CIA analyst Fleitz: Iran was months from a nuke, Israel had to act

Former CIA analyst and America First Policy Institute Vice Chair Fred Fleitz said Friday he believed Iran was months away from a nuclear weapon and that Israel had to act to prevent that development.

Israel launched a "pre-emptive" strike on Iran from Thursday evening into Friday morning, aiming to dismantle the country's nuclear program.

"I believe Iran can enrich enough uranium for one weapon in a week and 17 weapons in four months," Fleitz said on the "John Solomon Reports" podcast. "Now, that enriched uranium would be in a gaseous form that has to be processed to uranium metal to fuel a weapon. So they may be six to nine months away from a weapon that they could test."

"This is a huge step, which means, in a year, they may not just have one weapon...they could have a dozen-a dozen that would work and that they could use," Fleitz said.

Following the airstrikes, President Donald Trump urged Iran to "make a deal" with the U.S. on its nuclear program "before there is nothing left."

"I think the next step for Iran was to conduct an underground nuclear test," Fleitz said. "But if they're at that stage that they had a weapon that would actually detonate, Israel didn't want to wait that long."

Following the strikes, Iran announced it would be backing out of nuclear talks with the U.S. that were scheduled for Sunday.