Barak Tells Ban Resolution 1701 “Not Working Well Enough”
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said Israel believes U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 was "not working well" because of continued arms smuggling to Hizbullah.
Barak also Wednesday applauded his prime minister”s decision to resign.
Barak, who was Israel”s prime minister from 1999 to 2001, met with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon before taking questions from reporters on his visit and on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert”s resignation.
Olmert, facing corruption allegations and low approval ratings after repeatedly denying wrongdoing, announced Wednesday he will step down in September.
"If or when in about six weeks a new leader will be elected for his party, he will step down. I think that this is a proper and responsible decision, made at the right time," Barak told reporters in New York.
Barak would only say when asked if he wanted his old job back that "we support our state and want to protect it."
On the topic of Iran, Barak repeated his assertion, conveyed to top U.S. officials in Washington a day earlier, that "no option should be removed" toward dealing with Iran.
"Basically, it”s a challenge for the whole world," Barak said. "If Iran turned into a military nuclear power, this would be the end of any conceivable nonproliferation regime and it will significantly risk any considerable stable world order."
Barak said he emphasized to Ban that Israel believes the U.N. sanctions regime against Iran and Resolution 1701 are "basically not working well enough" because Tehran is smuggling into Lebanon "a flow of munitions, rockets and other weapons systems.