BICOM

Now is the moment for the international community to gear up to bring Iran’s nuclear programme to a ‘swift and decisive end,’ Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak said at an annual Independence Day ceremony at the Air Force House in Herzliya, which he attended along with other top officials yesterday evening.

‘Truth be told, the likelihood that Iran will heed international demands to halt the programme irreversibly at the current pressure level seems low,’ said Barak. “Confronting Iran’s determination to attain a nuclear weapons capability is not without complications, risks and unpredictable consequences,” he said. ‘But the same challenge if the regime of the ayatollahs is allowed to achieve that nuclear weapons capability would be far more complicated, risky, and costly in terms of lives and resources. Now is the moment for the entire international community to gear up to put a swift and decisive end to Iran’s nuclear programme.’

The Defence Minister also warned that if Iran were to acquire nuclear capabilities, a nuclear arms race would erupt in the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt – and, worse yet, terrorist organisations – taking part in the proliferation.

Regarding the disagreement with the United States over how to deal with Iran, Barak said, ‘there are certain differences between us in terms of attitude, whose origins lay in clocks that tick at different speeds. That of Israel, whose capabilities are far more limited, ticks faster than that of the United States. However, even the American government understands that Israel should be able to defend itself with its own strength and that on topics regarding the basis of the security and future of Israel, and in a certain sense the Jewish people as a whole, Israel and its government alone must come to a decision and take responsibility. The IDF, like the U.S. military, is responsible for building operational capabilities. The political echelon, both here and in Washington, is responsible for taking all things into consideration.’