Barak: Time needed to deal with Iran slipping through our fingers

Defense Minister Ehud Barak sounded a more urgent tone on Wednesday following reports that Iran had started testing its Russian-built nuclear power plant in Bushehr.

"Israel's policy is clear: we do not take any option off the table with regards to Iran's nuclear program," Barak said during an appearance at a symposium at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.

In a veiled reference to the Obama administration, the defense minister said: "We would suggest that others do not take any option off the table. A dialogue with Iran needs to be limited in time."

"Time is slipping through our fingers, and what is needed is a two-pronged course of action which includes ironclad, strenuous sanctions against the Iranian regime and a readiness to consider options in the event that these sanctions do not succeed," Barak said.

Earlier Wednesday, an Iranian official said the Islamic Republic has started tests on its Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant as part of preparations for its launch, an official said on Wednesday.

Barak said that Israel views the latest developments as another stage in the emergence of an existential threat. "Despite the fact that this plant is not among the main axis of Iran's nuclear activity that is geared towards military goals, one cannot misjudge the growing significance of the IAEA report, together with the news today out of Bushehr, that point to the urgency and the importance of the free world, chief among it the United States, taking a concrete stand against this phenomenon."

Barak added that Russian can play a vital role in applying pressure on Iran. Sanctions that do not include Russian participation and cooperation are meaningless, the defense minister said.

"For the Russians, who today are a partner in the operation of the [Bushehr] plant, they have a key role in stopping Iran," Barak said. "It's hard to envision international sanctions stopping Iran from going forward with it nuclear plans without having close, intimate cooperation with the Russians, and perhaps also with the Chinese and the Indians."

Israel responded to the news of the plant test with concern, calling the test "bad news" for the whole world.

"Iranians are showing again that they are making progress in their nuclear race," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said. "This should be understood as very bad news for the whole of the international community."

Palmor called for immediate and very determined steps in order to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power.

The West, which suspects Tehran of seeking to produce its own nuclear bomb, has been critical of Russia's involvement in building Bushehr in southwestern Iran. Russia says it is purely civilian and cannot be used for any weapons program.

The Iranian official, Mohsen Shirazi, said the visiting head of Russia's state nuclear company, Sergei Kiriyenko, and his Iranian counterpart Gholamreza Aghazadeh were at the plant to inspect work that included injecting "virtual" fuel into rods.

"This process started 10 days ago. Lead is used instead of nuclear fuel," Shirazi told reporters at the site.

The launch of Bushehr has been delayed frequently. Russia last year completed delivery of nuclear fuel to the station under a contract estimated to be worth about $1 billion.

Asked about Wednesday's tests, Kiriyenko said: "This is virtual fuel injection to test how the reactor works."

His comments were translated by Iranian state television.

He did not give details. Iranian media on Sunday said Wednesday's event would include testing of all of Bushehr's activities with special computer software.

Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov, however, said earlier this week that no major milestone in the reparations for Bushehr's start-up is expected during Kiriyenko's visit.

Novikov said that Rosatom expects it to be a just a working visit and that as before, the reactor's physical start-up is expected by the end of the year.

"It is a regular meeting on the site, with Russians and the Iranian organizations which are working on the project," Novikov said of Wednesday's event.

Shirazi said that if the tests were successful fuel rods with enriched uranium would be used instead of lead, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Enriched uranium can be used as fuel for power plants and also provide material for bombs if refined much further.

Analysts say Iran could become a central issue in relations between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and new U.S. President Barack Obama, who has said that the United States was prepared to talk to Tehran.

They say Russia has used Bushehr as a lever in relations with Tehran, which is suspected by the United States and some European countries of seeking to build nuclear weapons.

Iran, the world's fourth-largest crude producer, rejects such allegations and says its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more oil and gas.

Russia started deliveries of nuclear fuel for the plant in late 2007, a step both Washington and Moscow said removed any need for Iran to have its own uranium enrichment program.

Moscow says Iran will return all spent fuel rods to Russia.