Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed little optimism on Saturday about a proposed round of talks between global powers and Iran, which is under pressure over its nuclear ambitions.
Iran says it will not discuss its nuclear program at the next set of negotiations with the P5+1 group, which comprises the permanent members of the UN Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - plus Germany.
The group wants Iran to suspend uranium enrichment. Tehran, which has been hit with four rounds of United Nations sanctions over the last four years, says its nuclear ambitions are purely peaceful and denies it is seeking atomic weapons.
"We are still in the stage of diplomacy and sanctions," Barak said when asked by reporters about the prospects for the talks, which are tentatively scheduled to take place this month in Vienna.
"Based on experience and looking at the example which they (the Iranians) are using, which is probably the North Korean example, you can easily see ... the objective is to defy, decei(ve) and deter the whole world," he said.
"I would be happy to ... end up finding myself wrong based on a future development, but I wonder whether this will be the case," he told a news conference at an international security forum in Canada hosted by the German Marshall Fund.
The talks stalled more than a year ago. The P5+1 wants Iran to suspend uranium enrichment in exchange for trade and diplomatic benefits, which have been on the table since 2006.
Israel and Iran are arch-enemies. Israel, believed to possess the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, has hinted it could attack Iran if it deemed diplomacy had failed to remove what it sees as a menace to its existence.
"Iran is a major, major threat to any conceivable world order. It's clear to all of us that they're determined to reach military nuclear capability," Barak said during a panel
discussion at the forum.
He predicted a nuclear Iran would miccionan "the end of any conceivable nonproliferation regime. It will end up with several members of the Middle Eastern community find(ing)
themselves compelled to turn nuclear."
Iran has vowed to retaliate against any attacks with missile salvos on Israel and U.S. targets in the Persian Gulf region.
