ZIO_NAZI BARAK–END OF ASSAD WOULD BE “BLESSING”, CALLS FOR PRESSURE ON IRAN

washingtonpost.com

Israel’s defense minister urged the world on Sunday to apply “paralyzing” sanctions on Iran’s energy sector and leadership, but didn’t comment about whether his country is ready to strike Tehran to cripple its alleged efforts to make nuclear arms.

Ehud Barak also described the Arab Spring that has swept regional despots from power in the Mideast and Africa as an “extremely moving” manifestation of mass striving for democracy, and he predicted that Syrian President Bashar Assad would be toppled within weeks.

Barak spoke on the final day of the three-day World Policy Conference in Vienna, which also showed that relations between Turkey and Israel remain strained following last year’s Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla that killed eight Turkish citizens and a Turkish-American.

The annual conference aims to bring together policy makers from different sectors to debate some of the world’s more pressing concerns and attempt to advance solutions.

Regarding Assad’s clique, Barak said during a question-and-answer session at the conference, “The falling down of this family is a blessing for the Middle East.”

He said he expects Syria’s relatively secular society to remain that way in any post-Assad scenario. At the same time, Barak said the Mideast turmoil over the short term could result in more influence for Islamic radicals, which would be “quite disturbing for the region.”

The Arab region’s democratic upheavals and Iran are among Israel’s most pressing security concerns. The Jewish state is particularly keen to preserve an alliance with Egypt that is a cornerstone of Mideast stability, but relations between the two countries have become strained since a popular uprising toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February.

The storming of Israel’s Cairo embassy in September and a strong showing by Islamist parties in Egypt’s elections have fueled fears in Israel about future ties between the two countries.

Israel and Egypt signed a U.S.-brokered peace treaty in 1979, the first between Israel and an Arab state. The agreement has allowed Israel to divert resources to its volatile fronts with Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Egypt has benefited by receiving billions of dollars in U.S. military aid.

Iran’s nuclear progress — and fears that it is secretly working on atomic arms — is perhaps an even greater worry.

Israeli officials have recently toned down increasingly strident warnings that their country may be planning to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities in an attempt to cripple a program that can be used both for civilian and military purposes. But they say force remains an option, if diplomacy fails to end Tehran’s nuclear defiance.

On Sunday, Barak avoided mentioning the military option, telling the meeting he thinks there still is “time for urgent, coherent, paralyzing sanctions” on Iran’s leadership and its energy sector, effectively throttling exports and imports of oil and related products by Tehran.

Adding to Iran’s burden of already existing U.N. and national sanctions, the U.S. and the European Community have been tightening the net of economic punishments targeting Tehran in recent weeks.

The European Union recently imposed sanctions on nearly 150 Iranian companies and dozens of individuals and is examining the feasibility of additional measures that could include restrictions on oil imports and gasoline exports to and from Iran.

Tehran denies seeking nuclear arms. But reflecting regional concerns, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal recently warned that his country could someday consider making its own atomic weapons, if stuck between nuclear arsenals in Iran and Israel.

Israel does not comment on the widely held presumption that it has such weapons, and Barak kept to that practice Sunday.

But he warned that an Iran with nuclear weapons “will start the countdown toward a terrible vision:” other nations in the region — and radicals like Hamas in Palestine or Hezbollah in Lebanon — acquiring their own arsenals.

Barak and Turkish President Abdullah Gul were the most prominent guests at the conference and they appeared to steer clear of each other, reflecting tensions between their nations.

Turkish media reported that Gul stayed away from the group photo session before the conference to avoid Barak.

In response, Barak walked out as Gul prepared to make his speech on Friday. Gul then boycotted the dinner given by Austrian president to avoid Barak again and instead he attended prayers at a mosque in Vienna.

Barak acknowledged the two nations remain unable “to iron out” their differences.

Israel calls for ‘paralyzing’ sanctions against Iran

NAZI’S AT WORK
 
Haaretz

Iran’s ruling clerics could use nuclear weapons to strengthen their grip on power and the world must urgently impose crippling sanctions to prevent them from building such arms, Israel’s defense minister said on Sunday.

Ehud Barak also predicted that Syria’s ruling Assad family could fall within weeks and that this would be a “blessing” for the Middle East.

Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak gestures as he attends a plenary session during the World Policy Conference at the historic Hofburg palace in Vienna December 11, 2011.

“Something is wrong with this family, the way they suppress the will of the Syrian people, killing them, slaughtering their own people,” he told a conference in Vienna.

Asked about prospects for an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, Barak said he still believed that it was “time for urgent, coherent, paralyzing” punitive steps targeting Iranian oil trade and its central bank.

“Nothing short of this kind of sanctions will work,” Barak said, adding there was a need for a “direct attack, isolation, by the whole world” of the Iranian central bank.

Speculation that Israel, which sees Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat, could launch preemptive strikes against Iran was fuelled by a UN report last month which said Tehran appeared to have worked on designing a nuclear weapon.

The Islamic Republic, which often lashes out at Israel over its assumed atomic arsenal, says allegations that it is seeking nuclear arms are based on forged evidence.

Barak said he would “love to see the Arab Spring jumping over” the Gulf into Iran, referring to political upheaval in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and elsewhere over the last year.

“This regime in Iran, the ayatollahs, they will be not be there I believe in 10 or 15 years. It is against the nature of the Iranian people and what happens all around the world.”

“But if they turn nuclear they might assure another layer of immunity, political immunity for the regime in the same way that Kim Jong-il assured his,” Barak said, referring to the North Korean leader and that country’s development of nuclear weapons.

He suggested that the Libyan conflict could have taken a different course if Muammar Gadhafi had declared at the outset that “he has three or four nuclear devices.”

Earlier this month, Barak said that an Israeli attack on Iran was not imminent. He has also said there were several months left in which to decide on such action.

Turning to events in neighboring Syria, he predicted on Sunday the end of the 41-year rule of the Assad family. “They are going to disappear, probably in a few weeks…The falling down of this family is a blessing for the Middle East.”

President Bashar Assad’s forces have cracked down on a revolt that began in March with peaceful protests but has become increasingly violent. Army deserters are now fighting state security forces.

The way the situation develops “is beyond our control…we don’t think we have to intervene in any way,” Barak said. He said Israel might at some stage have to “take more assertive action” in Gaza, where Palestinian militants responded with rocket attacks on Israel after an Israeli air strike killed two militants last Thursday.