RAMALLAH: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed his qualified support for the prospect of an American-Iranian dialogue over Tehran’s nuclear program, the daily Yediot Ahronot reported yesterday.
“There is sense in brief and purposeful dialogue with Iran, on condition that if it turns out that it (Iran) continues to deceive the world and is producing nuclear weapons, there will be a way out of this obligation” Yediot quoted Barak as saying at a conference of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University on Wednesday.
US President-elect Barack Obama has said he will engage in tough diplomacy to try to deter the Iranians. But Israeli Foreign Minister and Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni said early November that Obama’s stated readiness to talk to Iran could be seen in the Middle East as a sign of weakness in efforts to persuade Tehran to curb its nuclear program.
However, Barak did not exclude the possibility of a military action against Iran, adding that “we recommend to the world not to take any option off the table, and we mean what we say.”
Barak also warned that Iran could try to attack the United States if it acquires a nuclear weapon. “If it built even a primitive nuclear weapon like the type that destroyed Hiroshima (of Japan), Iran would not hesitate to load it on a ship, arm it with a detonator operated by GPS and sail it into a vital port on the east coast of North America,” Yediot quoted him as saying.
