Barak: Iran Nuclear Talks ‘Ridiculous’
Talks between Iran and world powers that will end in agreed-upon measures that would nonetheless allow Tehran to continue and pursue military aspects of its nuclear program are “ridiculous,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in an interview on Wednesday.
Barak’s comments, made during an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan, came ahead of next week’s round of P5+1 talks, due to take place in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
Referring to upcoming talks, Barak indicated that while Israel trusted the “United States and the other members of the P5+1,” it expected them “to set the bar at a place where it becomes clear that at least, in however long it takes to reach there, block Iran from turning militarily nuclear.”
“If the world community set the threshold that even if fully accepted, let alone only partially accepted by the Iranians, to keep moving toward nuclear military program, that’s ridiculous, a delusion,” the defense minister added.
As to the desired result of upcoming talks, Barak said: “There is a need to stop enriching uranium, to 20 percent, or even 3 to 5 percent, and to take all the enriched uranium out of the country. You can allow them to play with some negligible amount that will never suffice for even one single weapon.”
When asked whether or not Iran was in a category of nations against which military actions must be taken – similarly to attacks on reactors in Iraq and Syria – Barak said:”I cannot improve your description, it was so close to perfect. I think that the real challenges now are these negotiations, what should be done about the negotiations.”
For more, go to Haaretz.com
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