Jerusalem : Meir Dagan, a former head of Israeli spy agency Mossad died Thursday at 71, the government said.
Who worked to thwart Iran's nuclear programme while also opposing a military strike against it.
Dagan, who battled liver cancer and had undergone a transplant, led the Mossad from 2002 through 2010.
He was reportedly tasked with sabotaging the nuclear programme of Israel's arch-foe Iran to prevent it from developing atomic weapons.
But while leading that secret war, he also strongly opposed a military strike against Iran, a position shared by the military's then-chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then defence minister Ehud Barak were reported to have given the order in 2010 for the military to prepare such a strike, which was never carried out.
In 2012, Dagan told US network CBS an Israeli attack would have "devastating" consequences for Israel and would be unlikely to put an end to the Iranian nuclear programme.
"An attack on Iran before you are exploring all other approaches is not the right way," Dagan said.
"And (President Barack Obama) said openly that the military option is on the table and he is not going to let Iran become a nuclear state, and from my experience, I usually trust the president of the US."
Under Dagan's leadership, the Mossad is believed to have assassinated Iranian nuclearscientists, caused explosions at nuclear facilities and used computer viruses to damage uranium centrifuges.
The Mossad has never confirmed such operations.
Several other controversial operations were attributed to the Mossad during Dagan's unusually long tenure, including a 2008 car bomb in Damascus that killed top Hezbollah operative Imad Mughniyeh.
Others included a 2008 air raid in Sudan against an alleged Iranian arms convoy said to be destined for Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and a 2007 bombing of a suspected desertnuclear site in Syria.
The end of his tenure was marked by the 2010 murder of top Hamas militant Mahmud al-Mabhuh in a Dubai hotel.
The incident caused an international uproar, with the Dubai authorities quickly pointing the finger at Israel, and releasing surveillance footage showing a team of alleged Israeli agents they say killed Mabhuh.
There were reports that those involved used British, Irish, French, Australian and German passports.
In many cases, the travel documents appeared either to have been faked or obtained illegally. The countries whose passports were used all called in Israeli envoys for talks.
