Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said that if Western sanctions against Iran fail to stop its nuclear program, military action against the country must be put on agenda."Today, unlike in the past, there is widespread international belief that it is vital to prevent Iran from becoming 'nuclear' and that no option should be taken off the table," Barak said at the Herzliya Conference in Israel on Thursday, Haaretz reported.
"Should sanctions fail to stop Iran's nuclear program, there will be a need to consider taking action," he added.- The comments come as the head of Israel's spy agency Tamir Pardo has recently paid a clandestine visit to the United States to discuss Iran's nuclear program with high-ranking US officials.
Meanwhile, Israel's President Shimon Peres has reiterated that Iran must not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons capability.- Hinting at the possibility of a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, Peres said last week that "no option should be ruled out in our dealing with the Iranian danger. This is an existential threat.”
- The United States, Israel and their European allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program and used this pretext to sway the UN Security Council to impose four rounds of sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
- Washington and Tel Aviv have also threatened Tehran with the "option" of a military strike against its nuclear facilities.
Tehran, however, refutes such allegations as “baseless” and maintains that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) it has every right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.The IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence indicating a diversion in Tehran's civilian nuclear program.
Iranian officials have also promised a crushing response to any military strike against the country, warning that any such measure could result in a war that would spread beyond the Middle East.
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