London, July 13 (ANI): Britain' Secret Intelligence Service MI6 has foiled Iran's attempts to obtain nuclear weapons, and has warned that Tehran will succeed in arming itself within the next two years.

Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, said that covert operations by British spies had prevented the Iranians from developing nuclear weapons as early as 2008.

He, however, said it was now likely they would achieve their goal by 2014, making a military strike from the US and Israel increasingly likely.

According to The Telegraph, speaking at a meeting of around 100 senior civil servants in London last week, Sawers said that Iran was now two years away from becoming a nuclear weapons state.

He said that when that moment came Israel or the United States would have to decide whether to launch a military strike.

The Iranians are determinedly going down a path to master all aspects of nuclear weapons; all the technologies they need, the paper quoted Sawers, as saying.

It's equally clear that Israel and the United States would face huge dangers if Iran were to become a nuclear weapon state, he added.

He stressed that without MI6's work dealing with the threat, you'd have Iran as a nuclear weapons state in 2008 rather than still being two years away in 2012. (ANI)