Liberman
LibermanHillel Meir/TPS

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman is not concerned about Iran's threats to return to accelerated enrichment of uranium and to withdraw from the nuclear agreement.

"Khamenei's declaration of uranium enrichment is a sign of hysteria and mass panic in the Iranian leadership. Iran is not an Israeli problem, but rather a regional and global problem, and that’s how it has to be related to, and it’s important to talk about the problem all the time and bring it up to the international community," he said at a conference of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

"The Iranians know that their extreme step will lead to Europe's withdrawal from the agreement and they are afraid of it." He also addressed the question of the Iranian presence in Syria and reports that Israel would agree that Iranian forces would remain in areas far from the Israeli border.

"We will not accept any Iranian presence in Syria. They have missiles in the range of hundreds of kilometers, and it does not matter from where in Syria they shoot them," Liberman said. He stressed that the military option vis-à-vis Iran has not been removed from the agenda. "All the options are on the table with regard to Iran."

The defense minister's remarks were made amid Iran's intention to announce to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) the beginning of a process that would allow it to increase its enriched uranium production capabilities.

A spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Agency said early in the morning that “In a letter that will be handed over to the International Atomic Energy Organization ... Iran will announce that the process of increasing the capacity to produce ... UF6 (uranium hexafluoride) ... will start on Tuesday.”