by Times of Israel Staff
Tehran has outwitted West ‘in Persian bazaar,’ defense minister says, slamming Obama for radiating weakness worldwide, risking more terror at home
Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon issued
a scathing critique of the Obama administration, an Israeli newspaper
reported Monday, declaring that Israel cannot rely on the US to thwart
Iran’s nuclear program, accusing the administration of broadcasting
weakness throughout the world, and warning that its perceived weakness
was inviting further terrorism against US targets.
Speaking at a Tel Aviv University event on Sunday reported by the Haaretz daily, Ya’alon said Israel could not afford to rely on the Obama administration to lead an action against Iran’s nuclear program, and that Israel could only rely on itself. Israel
had believed that “the one who should lead the campaign against Iran is
the US,” but instead, “the US at a certain stage began negotiating with
them, and unfortunately in the Persian bazaar the Iranians were
better,” he said. Therefore, “we (Israelis) have to look out for
ourselves.”
Ya’alon’s office confirmed his remarks about
Iran, but refused to comment as to whether the defense minister was
advocating an Israeli strike on Iran. Ya’alon was widely reported to
have opposed an Israeli resort to force against Iran in the past, but
the Haaretz report said his comments Sunday indicated that he had
changed his stance, and was now inclined to support Israeli military
intervention in Iran.
In
this Jan. 15, 2011 file photo, Iran’s heavy water nuclear facility is
back-dropped by mountains near the central city of Arak, Iran. (AP
Photo/ISNA, Hamid Foroutan)
In his reported remarks Sunday, Ya’alon was
adamant that “Iran is fooling the world” about its nuclear program,” but
said the West preferred to put off any confrontation — “to next year,
or the next term; but it will blow up in the end.” The Iranians had been
“on all fours” because of sanctions and diplomatic isolation, but had
been allowed to recover, he charged. The interim deal signed in Geneva
in November “is very comfortable for the Iranians,” he said, enabling
them to establish themselves as a threshold state “and break out to the
bomb when they choose to do so.”
Ya’alon spoke as world powers and Iran are set
to start a new round of talks over Iran’s contested nuclear program in
Vienna. Iran denies it seeks nuclear weapons. On Sunday Iranian Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif predicted that the talks,
scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, would not produce a final deal.
Iran capped uranium enrichment after the six-month interim deal was
struck in November, in return for easing non-core sanctions by the West.
Moving to a wider critique of the Obama
administration, Ya’alon reportedly stressed several times that the US
was radiating weakness in every region worldwide. “The Sunni camp [in
the Middle East] expected that the US would support it, and would be as
determined as Russia is in its support of the Shiite axis,” he was
quoted as saying. “I hear voices of disappointment in the region. I was
in Singapore, and I heard disappointment at the strengthening of China
and the weakening of the United States. Look what’s happening in the
Ukraine; there, to my sorrow, the US is broadcasting weakness.”
Ya’alon, a former IDF chief of General Staff,
warned that if the US continued to show weakness internationally, its
own national security would be severely damaged. “If you wait at home,
terror will come calling again,” he said. “This is a war of
civilizations. If you are perceived to be weak, that certainly does not
pay in the world. I hope the US will reassert itself.”
AP contributed to this report.
Times of Israel Staff
Source: http://www.timesofisrael.com/defense-minister-we-cant-rely-on-us-to-deal-with-iran/
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