Barak: Iran Ought to be Listening to Us for Its Own Good

Israel National News

In an interview with CNN Sunday, former Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Israel “meant what it said” on preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and it would behoove Tehran to pay attention to that. “We all say that all options remain on the table and we are determined to prevent Iran from turning nuclear,” Barak told CNN interviewer Fareed Zakaria “We have to mean it.”

The world sees Iran's new President, Hassan Rouhani, as a more peace-minded leader than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but that assessment was incorrect, Barak said. “Everyone mentions that [Rouhani] was the one responsible for slowing the moving toward nuclear military weapons in 2003, 2005. We have to remember why he did it... he felt that when the Americans already hit Afghanistan, they already hit Iraq,” and Rouhani feared Iran would be next, said Barak. “That's the only thing that convinced them.

“When we say that we are determined to prevent Iran, we literally mean it. And we expect others who say to mean it,” he added.

“The Iranians should know that they are expected to put an end to the nuclear military program or else. Behind closed doors, they have to know it…There is no need to embarrass them, but they should know what will follow if they will not take decisions quite urgently to stop it,” Barak added.