WASHINGTON – Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Friday that Israel was ready to "make tough decisions and to take chances", but that a partner was needed for peace talks with the Palestinians.
Speaking at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy Barak added that when the moment of truth came, the Israeli public would support a compromise with the Palestinian Authority.
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The defense minister also warned the Lebanese government that Israel was watching Hezbollah in southern Lebanon closely. "If we are forced into conflict, we will not look for individual terrorists. The Lebanese government is responsible," he said.
Barak added that Lebanon's membership at the UN was an "anomaly" because it was a state controlled by a militia receiving arms from two other UN members, Syria and Iran.
"Soldiers and civilians from these two countries work in Lebanon and give orders to the militia," he said, adding that Hezbollah possessed 45,000 rockets capable of covering Israel. He said the rockets were not precise weapons, and could only be used for fire on civilian areas in Israel.
Regarding Iran, Barak said he didn't believe the Islamic Republic would attack Israel. "I don't think the Iranians, even if they got the bomb, (would) drop it in the neighborhood," he said.
"They fully understand what might follow. They are radical but not totally crazy. They have a quite sophisticated decision-making process, and they understand reality."
"What is really needed is significant sanctions, effective ones, within a time limit," Barak said. He credited the Obama administration with making a strong effort on sanctions.
"We appreciate it and we hope it will be successful," he said. "But we also should carry a certain skepticism and think thoroughly and in a constructive manner about what should happen if – against our hopes and wishes – it won't work."
Barak said Iran is undergoing a tumultuous period of internal dissent, but he added that the rest of the world should not assume that the clerical regime will collapse or reform before it manages to get a nuclear weapon.
"We see that the grip of the regime on its own people and even the cohesion of the leading group of ayatollahs are both being cracked," he said, "and probably the countdown toward their collapse has started."
AP contributed to this report
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