Israel has claimed it has already set back Iran’s presumed nuclear programme by at least two years, AFP reports. Tehran has consistently denied developing nuclear weapons.

“According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in an interview.

Saar said Israel’s week-long onslaught would continue. “We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat,” he told German newspaper Bild.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 per cent. However, it added that there was no evidence it had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told CNN it was “pure speculation” to say how long it would take Iran to develop weapons.