Pat Dollard | Young Americans

J-Post:

“Iran is not threatening Israel and does not want nuclear weapons, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Saturday.

Speaking to Israel Radio on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mottaki said that it was Israel that possessed nuclear weapons and “it is threatening Teheran.”

The Iranian foreign minister went on to say that Iran did not recognize two countries, South Africa and Israel. “In the case of South Africa, the problem was solved with the end of apartheid and if the situation also changes in the other case [Israel], there is no reason why relations with that country cannot change too,” he added.

Meanwhile, in an interview to the Washington Post published Saturday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel believes Iran has a clandestine uranium enrichment program beyond the one in Natanz and suspects that it is already working on warheads for ground-to-ground missiles.

Barak said Israel believes “the Iranians are aiming at nuclear capability,” even though “they may have slowed down the weapons [development] in 2003, because it was at the height of the American military campaign [in Iraq].”

“We think that they are quite advanced, much beyond the level of the Manhattan Project,” Barak stated, referring to the codename of the US nuclear development project during World War II.

“It’s clear that the real risk with Iran turning nuclear is that it will be the end of the non-proliferation regime because it will open the door on active proliferation,” he said. “It’s very dangerous that we will end up in 10 to 15 years with a nuclear device in the hands of terrorists.”

“The leading intelligence communities should concentrate on finding whether there is . . . a clandestine enrichment operation and a weapons group working on the weapons technology,” he said.

But he acknowledged that the international community was not as certain of Iran’s nuclear aspirations.

“Clearly the NIE reduced the enthusiasm even for tougher sanctions,” he said. “We need a much deeper and more intimate cooperation between the United States, the EU, Russia and China. And this needs a paradigm shift in the way we approach China and Russia.”

Barak also spoke of the fledgling Middle East peace process, saying Israel was willing to reach an accord but was not sure of the Palestinian Authority’s ability to implement one.

“There has never been a shortage of goodwill on Israel’s side. [PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salaam Fayad] are both willing and ready, but there is a great question mark as to whether they are able. They control only half of their people,” he said.

Barak stressed that Israel would not give up its operational freedom against terrorism “as long as Hamas is in Gaza and terror activities are taking place in the West Bank.”