
Outgoing Defense Minister Ehud Barak sounded an urgent tone regarding Iran’s development of nuclear weapons in a speech he delivered in Netanya Wednesday evening.
F-16I photo from IAF website
“Time is running out fast and oozing between our fingers,” Barak said. “Robust and resolute sanctions against the Iranian regime are needed,” Barak said. “If these do not succeed in blocking the development, the necessary matters must be considered,” he added.
Barak said Israel will “stop at nothing” to block the Iranian threat against it. “We see the continuation of the Iranian nuclear project as a potential existential threat against the State of Israel. We are taking no option off the table, and we recommend that others do the same,” he added.
“We mean what we say,” Barak intoned.
Barak also said that Russia could make use of its cooperation with Iran in order to block Tehran’s nuclear efforts. “The Russians, who today are partners in operating the [nuclear] reactor, have a central role in stopping Iran,” he explained. “Unless the Russians are intimately involved in the sanctions, it is difficult to envision international sanctions denying Iran its nuclear program,” he added.