Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Britain’s Daily Telegraph that an immediate crisis was avoided when Iran chose to use more than a third of its 20 percent enriched uranium for civilian purposes earlier this year. Iran used the uranium to make fuel plates for its small reactor in Tehran that makes medical isotopes.
Barak said that decision “allows contemplating delaying the moment of truth by eight to ten months,” or until Iran has enriched another stack of 20 percent uranium large enough to make a bomb’s warhead.
As to why Iran backed away from work on a bomb, Barak said: “There could be at least three explanations. One is that the public discourse about a possible Israeli or American operation deterred them from trying to come closer.
“It could probably be a diplomatic gambit that they have launched in order to avoid this issue culminating before the American election, just to gain some time.
“It could be a way of telling the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], ‘Oh, we comply with our commitments’.”
Analysts say Iran already has enough uranium enriched to less than 5 percent for several nuclear bombs if that uranium were enriched to more than 90 percent. But analysts point out that even with a stock of 90 percent enriched weapons grade uranium, Iran may still be a few years away from being able to make a small enough warhead to fit onto a missile.
Asked by the British newspaper whether, if Iran had not pulled back, the crisis would have peaked “about now,” Barak said: “Probably, yes.” He added that he still believed Iran was still resolved to build nuclear weapons eventually.
“We all agree that the Iranians are determined to turn into a military nuclear power and we all share the declaration that we are determined to prevent Iran from turning nuclear and all options are on the table,” he said.
“We [Israel] mean it. We expect others [presumably the United States and Europe] to mean it as well. So, it’s not something just about us. But we, for obvious reasons, see the Iranian threat in much more concrete terms.”
He reiterated that Israel re serves the right to act alone.
“When it comes to the very core of our security interests and, in a way, the future of Israel, we cannot delegate the responsibility for making decisions even into the hands of our most trusted and trustworthy ally,” he told the Telegraph.
“It doesn’t mean that we would be sorry if the Iranians come to the conclusion on their own. The opposite is true. But, if no one acts, we will have to contemplate action.” He set no deadline.
By pushing any decision point into the indefinite future, Barak may have removed the Iran issue as a topic in the upcoming Israeli parliamentary elections to be held in January.
