Tehran, December 19: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Tel Aviv and Washington are determined to stop Iran’s nuclear program and do not rule out any option to this end.
“Our two countries clearly believe that a nuclear Iran is neither conceivable nor acceptable and we are determined to stop Iran,” Barak told Israel’s public radio on Sunday.
He added, “We reiterated the fact that we must not take any option off the table.”
The remarks come two days after US President Barack Obama once again said that Washington would take “no options off the table” in its effort to halt Iran’s nuclear activities.
“We’re going to keep up the pressure, and that’s why, rest assured, we will take no options off the table. We’re going to keep standing with our Israeli friends and allies,” Obama said during the 71st General Assembly of the Union for Reform Judaism in Washington’s Maryland suburbs on Friday.
The United States, Israel, and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program. Washington and Tel Aviv have repeatedly threatened Tehran with the “option” of a military strike against its atomic facilities.
Under pressure from Washington and Tel Aviv, the UN Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions against Tehran. The United States and the European Union have also adopted unilateral measures against the Islamic Republic in an effort to deter Western investments in Iran’s energy sector.
Iran argues 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 pointed to any evidence indicating that Tehran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production.
——Agencies