Barak: We think Iran’s nuclear program is much beyond the level of the Manhattan Project

In an interview for Newsweek by Lally Weymouth, the Israeli defense minister said: We think that they [the Iranians] are quite advanced… working on warheads for ground-to-ground missiles… [and] that they probably have another clandestine enrichment operation beyond the one in Natanz.
debkafile: If they are “working on warheads,” this would indicate that a nuclear weapon is already within reach.
Barak went on to say: “Our interpretation is that clearly the Iranians are aiming at a nuclear capability. It’s probably true that… they may have slowed down the weapons group in 2003 because it was the height of American militarism… We think that they are quite advanced, much beyond the level of the Manhattan Project [which developed the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II].”
Asked if he thought the Americans would fail to take action as a result of the National Intelligence program, the Israeli defense minister remarked that it had reduced the chances of tough sanctions.
He called for a much deeper and more intimate cooperation between the US, the EU Russia and China. “This needs a paradigm shift in the way we approach China and Russia,” he said.
Asked whether Israel is able to conduct a military raid on Iran alone, Barak said: “I am not going to talk about this.” He also refused to discuss Israel’s raid on the suspected Syrian nuclear site on Sept. 6, 2007.
On the rumor going around Washington that Pakistan is helping Saudi Arabia build a nuclear program, the minister said: “I have no information.”
He added that the real risk with Iran turning nuclear is that it will be the end of the non-proliferation regime.
A.Q. Khan was ready to sell to sell to anyone, said Barak, especially if he was a good Muslim. It’s very dangerous that we will end up in 10 to 15 years with a nuclear device in the hands of terrorists.
The interview took place in Davos, Switzerland, and was run by the Washington Post