Israel watches as world rejects sanctions on Iran
Israel watched the developments at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on Thursday very closely, yet unable to convince the world to implement crippling sanctions on Iran that would convince it to jettison its military nuclear program.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in an interview Thursday morning from Canada with Israel Radio, said that Jerusalem was engaged in an “intensive world struggle to enlist world leaders” to support sanctions. “Our goal is to ensure that as a result of the recent IAEA report there are practical actions and steps taken to stop Iran.”
That report, issued last week, stated that Iran was working to develop a nuclear-weapon design and conducting extensive research and tests for those weapons. On Thursday a resolution was agreed upon in Vienna by the five permanent members of the Security Council, plus Germany, to slam Iran for its defiance, but stopped short of sending the matter back to the UN Security Council for another round of sanctions. The resolution is expected to be passed by the IAEA board of governors meeting on Friday.
Barak said that Israel should not adopt a policy of “whining and fear and saying that they are going to do all kinds of things to me, but rather Israel must make clear that it understands the situation very well, and that what is being discussed is a challenge to the whole world because it threatens the whole world.”
Meanwhile, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon picked up on the universality of the Iranian threat during a speech Thursday at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, saying Iranians fingerprints can be seen in every area of conflict in the region.
“The significance of an Iran with nuclear weapons capability is that it could create nuclear chaos in the Middle East, and lead to the use of the nuclear umbrella to encourage terrorism and irredentism, and the transfer of a dirty bomb to Manhattan and Europe,” he said.