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In recent weeks, countries such as the United States and Britain have made it clear that that they are not in favour of such a military move by Israel — arguing it is not yet necessary, and fearing it would spark a much larger conflict in the Middle East.

U.S. President Barack Obama, in advance of his own meeting early next week with Mr. Netanyahu, was blunt in an interview released Friday, saying a premeditated Israeli attack would be “unacceptable.”

In some of his toughest comments yet on Tehran’s nuclear drive, Mr. Obama also warned that Israel and Iran should take seriously possible U.S. action against Iranian nuclear facilities if sanctions fail to stop the country’s atomic ambitions.

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“I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don’t bluff,” Obama told the Atlantic Monthly magazine in remarks published Friday.

“I also don’t, as a matter of sound policy, go around advertising exactly what our intentions are. But I think both the Iranian and the Israeli governments recognize that when the United States says it is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, we mean what we say.”

Tehran insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only but Western nations suspect the Islamic republic is leading a covert program to develop a nuclear weapons capability and is not far from achieving its goal.

In recent weeks, it has not been clear where Canada — which has become a major ally of Israel under the Harper government — stands on the question of a premeditated attack on Iran.