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Israeli DM says Western transparency demands on Iran

14 May 2012 18:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday sharply criticized the Western requests for Iranian cooperation and transparency over its nuclear fuel enrichment program are "too lax", APA reports quoting Xinhua

Speaking with local Army radio, Barak charged that "The demands today (on Iran) ahead of talks are so minimal, that even if Iran accepts all of them, it will still be able to continue and make progress with its nuclear program."

Israel, the United States and other Western countries believe Iran is operating a clandestine military nuclear weaponization program, under the ruse of medical research and power generation.

Israel considers a nuclear armed Iran as an existential threat, particularly in light of repeated statements by its leaders to destroy the Jewish state.

Iran has repeatedly denied the allegations, saying that its nuclear program is of peaceful purposes.

Calling on Iran to "completely cease its (nuclear fuel) enrichment activities inside Iran, including levels of 3.5 percent, " Barak said he was doubtful about the outcome of the two-day talks in Vienna, Austria, between Teheran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which began on Monday.

"We are trying to send this message to other countries. Demands should be made to prevent Iran from continuing the race to achieve a nuclear weapon under any circumstances. We have a paramount responsibility to do everything we can on this matter," Barak said.

The latest round of nuclear talks between Iran and the UN Security Councilâ€™s five permanent members (the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China) plus Germany, known as P5+1, concluded in Turkeyâ€™s Istanbul in April, with all sides describing the talks as positive and agreeing to meet again in Baghdad on May 23.

"Iraqi officials will present proposals to settle the disputes over Iranâ€™s nuclear program during the meeting between Iran and the P5+1," local media quoted unnamed government sources as saying.

Barak reiterated that Israel was weighing a military attack against the Iranian nuclear facilities if the talks did not prove successful, noting the entry of Israelâ€™s former opposition Kadima Party into a broad 94-member unity government.

"With (Kadima Chairman) Shaul Mofaz in the government, all options regarding Iran are on the table," Barak warned.

"The Iranians are continuing their plan to develop a nuclear weapon. The group of countries in talks with Iran should present a demand, which if accepted, will stop Iranâ€™s progress toward nuclear capability," he said.

Barak said the Israeli army is aware of the capabilities of Iranian nuclear facilities when asked about drawings based on eyewitness about the Parchin military site near Tehran, in which simulated nuclear warhead tests allegedly took place.

The sketch, which shows an explosives containment chamber commonly used in testing aspects of nuclear weapons, seems to confirm an IAEA report issued last November, which charged that the chamber, used in high-explosives testing, were "strong indicators of possible (nuclear) weapon development."

"This diagram is part of the information known to all leading intelligence agencies in the free world for some time," Barak said.

"What one does inside such a chamber is conducting high explosives testing," according to Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the Nonproliferation and Disarmament Program of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"You are going to make something go boom with maybe 70 kilograms of high explosives, you need to contain the explosion," he said, according to the Yisrael Hayom (Israel Today) newspaper.

"And particularly if you are using uranium, which is reportedly the case, you want to contain all the uranium dust so thereâ€™s not any tell-tale, observable signals of that experimentation," Fitzpatrick said.