Speaking to Kol Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet Thursday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Iran is exaggerating the rate of its progress in developing its nuclear program. Nevertheless, Barak emphasized, we should not ignore the fact that there has been progress and that the West must increase further the pressure on Iran.
Barak was clear in stating that Iran’s nuclear program has not yet reached the point of no return, where deploying its nuclear devices would become inevitable.
Barak suggested that in spreading the nuclear program over three separate locations Iran intended to make it difficult to execute surgical strikes against its program.
Regarding the coming cuts to Israel’s defense budget, Barak pointed out that the military’s share in the budget has gone down over the last few years from 25 to only 13 percent. In his opinion, it will be impossible to carry out all its current assignments without an increase in the military budget.
