Defense Minister Ehud Barak was interviewed by PBS’ Charlie Rose on Wednesday, November 16, 2011. Following are excerpts from the interview pertaining to Iran and the ongoing race to achieve nuclear independence. The interview was conducted in English.

BARAK:
They are trying to become, they are prepared to deceive and defy the whole world to achieve this.

CR:
If you were Iran wouldn’t you want a nuclear weapon?

BARAK:
Probably, probably. I don’t delude myself that they are doing it just because of Israel. They have their history of 4,000 years. They look around and they see the Indians are nuclear. The Chinese are nuclear, Pakistan in nuclear as well as South Korea, not to mention the Russians.

They look westward and they see Saddam tried it, Bashar Assad tried it, Kaddafi had it and Israel allegedly. All the leaders of the world make statements as if they adopted our phrase, our coin that we have to do it, it is urgent, that we should do it. No options should be taken off the table. As of now, they cannot bring enough political will to do it inside the UN Security Council or outside the Security Council.

CR:
If that is so, what is left?

BARAK:
I might be interviewed once against if there are just more conversations around the world.

CR:
If that does not work then there are no other alternatives other than a military solution. correct? That’s an easy question.

BARAK:
Yes, that is an easy question but one that should be contemplated before you answer it. I prefer to stick to our old usual answer. We think that any means should be used and at the same time we recommend to our friends all around the world and we take it upon ourselves not to remove any option from the table.

CR:
If in fact a military option is taken, can they destroy the nuclear program?

BARAK:
I prefer not to answer this question during this interview.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)