LONDON: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has warned that military action by Israel alone will not be enough to significantly delay Iran’s nuclear ambitions, describing the Islamic republic as a “threshold nuclear power.”
Speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Barak said that Israel’s ability to hold back Tehran’s program was limited.
“In my judgment, it’s not a secret that Israel alone cannot delay the nuclear program of Iran by a significant time period. Probably several weeks, probably a month, but even the US cannot delay them by more than a few months,” he said.
“It doesn’t mean that immediately they will have (a nuclear weapon), probably they still have to complete certain weaponization, or probably create a crude nuclear device to explode it somewhere in the desert to show the whole world where they are.”
Barak said that while military strikes were “problematic,” Israel viewed the action as justified.
“Instead of sitting idle, Israel feels that they have to do something. Probably together with the Americans we can do more.”
The former premier said that stopping Iran’s progress would require either a major diplomatic breakthrough or a regime change.
“My judgment is that because Iran is already what’s called a threshold nuclear power, the only way to block it is either to impose upon it a convincing new agreement or alternatively a full-scale war to topple down the regime,” he said.
“That’s something that together with the United States we can do.”
But he said he did not believe Washington had the appetite for such a move.
“I don’t believe that any American president, neither Trump or any one of his predecessors, would have decided to do that.”
Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on Monday, killing and wounding civilians and raising concerns of a broader regional conflict, with both militaries urging civilians on the opposing side to take precautions against further strikes.
Plan to assassinate Ayatollah Khamenei
Several Western news reports claimed that the US President Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan to assassinate Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei.
“We found out that the Israelis had plans to hit Iran’s supreme leader. President Trump was against it and we told the Israelis not to,” Reuters and AP quoting unnamed senior US official reported.
When asked about the report, Netanyahu told Fox News on Sunday: “We do what we need to do.” He also said ‘regime change’ in Iran could be a result of Israel’s military attacks, adding that Israel would do what it takes to remove what he called the “existential threat” posed by Iran.
Death of IRGC intelligence chief
An Israeli strike on Sunday killed the intelligence chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammed Kazemi, along with two other officers, the official IRNA news agency reported.
“Three intelligence generals, Mohammad Kazemi and his immediate deputies Hassan Mohaghegh and Mohsen Bagheri were assassinated and fell as martyrs,” the agency said, citing a Revolutionary Guards statement.
The three senior IRGC commanders were targeted in a residential area, Press TV reported.
