Former Israel Defense Forces ( IDF) chief of staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak on Tuesday joined a chorus of ex-security officials opposing an Israeli military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.

Lipkin-Shahak rejected an assumption that an attack against Iran should be carried out by this autumn, saying all of the options will remain "on the table" after the U.S. presidential elections in November, and that presenting the situation otherwise would be wrong.

"We will still have the option (of striking Iran) even after the elections in America and therefore we shouldn't rush," he said in a speech at an event in Tel Aviv.

"We shouldn't present it as though it must happen in the autumn, as I read in the papers," he added.

Lipkin-Shahak joins former Mossad, Shin Bet security agencies, and IDF officials who have come out in recent months with public statements calling on Israel not to strike Iran's nuclear enrichment sites.

Israel, the United States and much of the west disbelieve Iranian statements that the research has peaceful goals, and contend that the work is cover for a clandestine weaponization program.

Lipkin-Shahak also said that the U.S. ability to remove the Iranian nuclear threat was much stronger than Israel's, and that he saw no reason for an urgent solo attack.

He concluded that he was astonished over the disagreements between the political and military spheres in assessing Iran's plans.

"I ask myself how is it that security officials and politicians each arrive at such different conclusions after going over the same information. I don't understand why the political echelon doesn't share the same intimacy with the Americans as the military and intelligence do," he said.

Shahak headed the IDF in 1995-1998. His predecessor was none- other than Ehud Barak, the current Defense Minister leading the heightened war talk on Iran.