Barak: Israel planned to strike Iranian nuclear facilities

Former Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak revealed on Friday that Tel Aviv was going to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2010, 2011 and 2012, a recorded interview aired on Israeli TV revealed.

Arabic news site PLS49.net said the revelation embarrassed Israeli politicians and forced the Chairman of the Knesset’s Security and Foreign Affairs Committee Tzachi Hanegbi to announce that an investigation would be completed into the recordings.

Barak said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was ready to attack Iran in 2010 but the Israeli military chief of staff argued that Israel lacked the “operational capability” to do so. In 2011, he was to carry out the mission, but two key ministers wavered at the last minute.

In 2012, Barak said, the timing did not work because of a joint American-Israel military exercise and the visit of the American secretary of defence to Israel.

According to the New York Times, Israeli TV Channel 2 broadcast the recordings after a military censor approved them, in spite of the face Barak stressed that they should not be aired.

Hanegbi told the Israeli radio about the formation of an investigation committee to see whether Barack had got a permission to release such information or not, noting that such remarks do not help Israel’s security.

Likud senior leader Ze’ev Elkin said that Barack’s remarks caused “much and embarrassing damage” to Israeli because they were about security issues.