‘We are very skeptical regarding Iran’s intentions’ in upcoming nuclear talks, defense minister says

Israel is “very skeptical regarding Iran’s intentions” in talks with world powers on Tehran’s nuclear program, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday.

“I expect the Iranians will attempt to make it look like there is progress, in order to reduce the pressure on them,” Barak said, “and that they will try to ‘squeeze’ a response in the form of not tightening the sanctions on them.”

Earlier Monday, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Iran must be prevented from enriching uranium entirely. Ultimately, he told Army Radio, Iran must be obligated “to carry out no enrichment whatsoever on Iranian soil — neither to 3.5% nor to 20%.”

Speaking as International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano touched down in Tehran, Ya’alon said that his fear was that Iran’s current intimations of a willingness for compromise reflect a decision “to sacrifice a pawn in order to keep the king.”

Also on Monday, Barak met with US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. Barak said after the meeting that Israel and the United States had “a shared interest in protecting their respective homelands as effectively as possible against the threat of international terrorism,” and that the two countries had “much to share and much to learn from one another” in the field of homeland security. (© 2012 THE TIMES OF ISRAEL 05/21/12)