The "time has come" to deal with Iran, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday, refusing to rule out military action to curb the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions.

Barak, speaking on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS program, indicated that Israel's patience was wearing thin -- and provided an ominous response when asked about the growing speculation of an Israeli military strike.

"I don't think that that is a subject for public discussion," he said. "But I can tell you that the IAEA report has a sobering impact on many in the world, leaders as well as the publics, and people understand that the time has come."

The International Atomic Energy Agency published a report on November 8 saying there was "credible" information that Iran was carrying out "activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device."

On Friday the IAEA's board passed a resolution condemning Iran's nuclear activities, but stopped short of reporting Tehran to the United Nations and issuing no deadline for compliance.

"People understand now that Iran is determined to reach nuclear weapons," said Barak. There is "no other possible or conceivable explanation for what they have been actually doing. And that should be stopped."

The IAEA report -- based on "broadly, credible" intelligence, its own information and some input from Iran itself -- said that Iran had examined how to fit out a Shahab 3 missile, with a range capable of reaching Israel, with a nuclear warhead.

Tehran rejected the report "baseless," denies it is seeking nuclear weapons and maintains its nuclear activities are for civilian energy purposes.

Washington, Paris and London however jumped on the report as justification to increase pressure on Iran, already under four rounds of Security Council sanctions and additional US and European Union restrictions.

Iran ready to cooperate 'further' with IAEA
Tehran (AFP) Nov 20, 2011 - Iran is ready to cooperate "further" with the UN atomic energy watchdog if it "balances its approach" to the Islamic republic, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Sunday, according to the ISNA news agency.

"We are prepared to cooperate with the agency more than ever, if the (UN) agency balances its approach and complies with its statutes and the safeguard agreements," Salehi was quoted as saying.

"If that is the case, we are prepared to cooperate much the same as before and even further with the agency," he said.

The conditional offer was made after a vote Friday by the board of the UN watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, calling for more cooperation from Iran on its nuclear programme.

The vote followed a November 8 IAEA report that strongly suggested Iran -- despite its repeated denials -- was researching nuclear weapons under cover of its civilian atomic activities.

The IAEA resolution -- worded to pass muster with Iran's allies Russia and China -- notably stopped short of sending the matter to the UN Security Council.

Instead, it said it was "essential for Iran and the Agency to intensify their dialogue" and called on Tehran "to comply fully and without delay with its obligations under relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council."

It gave no deadline for those demands to be met, but said IAEA head Yukiya Amano would report to the board in March on Tehran's implementation of the resolution.

Amano said last Thursday he had proposed sending a high-level team to Iran to "clarify the issues" in the IAEA report, and asked Tehran "to engage substantively with the agency without delay."

The UN Security Council has already imposed four sets of sanctions on Iran to pressure it to halt its nuclear activities.

Iran's deputy chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri, said, according to the website of Iran's state television, that Washington had "failed" in a bid to again have the IAEA refer Iran's nuclear programme to the Security Council.

Iran's representative at the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, was quoted by the ISNA news agency Saturday as saying Iran had already invited IAEA officials to visit to discuss questions raised in the report.

"The director general's announcement that the agency is now ready to send a team of inspectors must be studied again and the result will be announced after that," he said.

Iran says it is developing its own missile defense system after Russia last year blocked delivery of the formidable S-300PMU system, which had been purchased in 2007.

Israeli defense expert Uzi Rubin, architect of the Jewish state's evolving multilayer missile defense program, says Tehran may be getting help from North Korean weapons engineers.

Iranian news agencies quoted defense officials as saying the Iranian Bavar 373 system is a substitute for the five S-300 batteries Moscow refused to deliver. The Iranians claim their system is more advanced than the Russian S-300, which was developed by NPO Almaz of Moscow.

"The designing phase of the Bavar 373 missile system Â… is to be completed soon," said Brig. Gen. Farzad Esmaili of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which oversees missile development projects in Iran.

"We don't think about the S-300," he added. "This domestically built system has more advanced capabilities than the S-300."

"Intuitively, it's difficult to imagine that the Iranian system is as good as the S-300," Rubin told The Jerusalem Post. "Making the missile is the simple part. The problem is creating complex radars and other components.

"The effectiveness of the system depends on the radars. The Iranians have some skills in this but years of experience are needed. It's difficult to believe that this can be done in one generation."

However, Rubin observed, "there are indications they're not working alone."

He said North Korean engineers may be helping the Iranians, as they have frequently over the years. The Iranians, he noted, "may be on the way to reaching these capabilities."

Technology for North Korea's Taepodong series of ballistic missiles is widely considered to have been used in Iranian projects.

On May 13, a U.N. panel of experts submitted an 81-page report to the Security Council saying that Pyongyang, ever in need of funds, persistently exported, or attempted to export, ballistic missiles, missile components and the relevant technologies to Iran in recent years despite U.N. bans.

Russians, a key arms supplier to Iran in recent years, dragged its feet on the S-300s for more than a year before deciding that delivering the missiles was banned under the fourth round of U.N. sanctions imposed on Iran in June 2010 for refusing to abandon its purported nuclear arms program.

The new sanctions regime gave Moscow the cover to renege on the $800 million deal in September.

But the decision to withhold the S-300s was largely political and part of its effort to improve relations with the West to help modernize strategic economic sectors.

The S-300 issue became a secret test for U.S. diplomacy at the highest levels and provided an opening for some strategic horse-trading.

By several accounts, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to sell the Russians 36 surveillance drones -- a field in which Russia is technologically deficient -- in a $100 million deal as part payment for scrapping the S-300 sale to Iran.

The United States and Israel had been particularly vehement in seeking to persuade Moscow to play ball because if Tehran acquired the S-300s its air-defense system would be dramatically strengthened to counter threatened pre-emptive Israeli airstrikes aimed at knocking out Iran's nuclear facilities.

The S-300 is considered one of the most advanced air-defense systems, ranking alongside the U.S. all-altitude Patriot system.

The S-300 can engage multiple targets, missiles as well as aircraft, at ranges of more than 100 miles at low and high altitudes.

Iran's air-defense system has nothing remotely as effective as the S-300.

The Russians are phasing it out with its own forces for the more advanced S-400. They're believed to be ahead of schedule in developing the S-500 system, which could be ready for production by the end of 2012.

In recent months, the Iranians have announced they're producing a range of indigenously developed weapons systems, including the Ghader anti-ship cruise missile.

There seems to be no shortage of new weapons programs, heightening Western skepticism about Tehran's endless claims.

While it's clear Iran has succeeded in making substantial technological advances, it's more likely to be focusing primarily on producing intermediate-range ballistic missiles like the Shehab-3 and the Sejjil-2 that are a crucial component of its nuclear program.

But air-defense is all-important as well, particularly as the Israelis are saber-rattling again and tension is mounting with the United States.

US says will not alter missile shield plan in Europe
Washington (AFP) Nov 23, 2011 - The United States will not alter its plans to deploy a NATO missile defense system in eastern Europe, US officials said Wednesday, adding the shield was not aimed at Russia.

"The United States has been open and transparent with Russia on our plans for missile defense in Europe, which reflect a growing threat to our allies from Iran that we are committed to deterring," insisted National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.

And he added: "In multiple channels, we have explained to Russian officials that the missile defense systems planned for deployment in Europe do not and cannot threaten Russia's strategic deterrent."

He was speaking after Russia warned it could deploy missiles on the EU's borders to strike against the planned missile defense facilities.

President Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow was prepared to deploy short-range Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad enclave that borders EU members Poland and Lithuania.

Romania and Poland have agreed to host part of a revamped US missile shield which Washington said is aimed solely at "rogue" states like Iran but Moscow believes would also target its own capability.

NATO member Turkey has also decided to host an early warning radar at a military facility near Malatya in the southeast.

Vietor said the implementation of the missile system in eastern Europe "is going well and we see no basis for threats to withdraw from it."

"We continue to believe that cooperation with Russia on missile defense can enhance the security of the United States, our allies in Europe, and Russia, and we will continue to work with Russia to define the parameters of possible cooperation," he added.

"However, in pursuing this cooperation, we will not in any way limit or change our deployment plans in Europe."

A Pentagon spokesman also stressed Wednesday that the system was not aimed at Russia, but sought to deter any ballistic missile threat from Iran.

"It's worth reiterating that the European missile defense system that we've been working very hard on with our allies and with Russia over the last few years is not aimed at Russia," said spokesman, Navy Captain John Kirby.

"It's designed to help deter and defeat the ballistic missile threat to Europe and to our allies from Iran."

Iran will target NATO's missile shield in neighbouring Turkey if it is threatened by military action, the commander of the aerospace division of the Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday.

"We are prepared to first target the NATO defence missile shield in Turkey if we are threatened. And then we'll move on to other targets," Amir-Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

Although Iranian officials have said several times they could retaliate with ballistic missiles against Israel if attacked, Hajizadeh's remark was the first time the Revolutionary Guards spoke of targeting Turkey.

Speculation has intensified in Israel that it was preparing air strikes on Iran to hit nuclear facilities following a November 8 report by the UN nuclear watchdog strongly suggesting Tehran was researching atomic weapons.

Hajizadeh, whose unit is in charge of Revolutionary Guards' missile systems, told a crowd of Basij militia members in the western city of Khorramabad that Iran's stance now was to "threaten in the face of threats," in line with a decree this month by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Turkey last year agreed to host an early warning radar system in its southeast as part of NATO's shield which the United States says is aimed at thwarting missile threats from the Middle East, particularly Iran.

Hajizadeh said last Monday the Revolutionary Guards' "greatest wish" was for Israel to attack Iran, so they could retaliate and relegate the Jewish state to "the dustbin of history."

Sanctions make nuclear talks 'more difficult': Ahmadinejad
Tehran (AFP) Nov 26, 2011 - New sanctions imposed on Iran by Western nations make the prospect of international talks on its nuclear programme "more difficult," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday in an interview with an Iranian state-run television network.

"They keep making it more difficult for them to negotiate with us," he said on the Jam e Jam channel, which is broadcast via satellite to the Iranian diaspora.

"You impose resolutions, sanctions, you use all tools against us, and you want to come and negotiate?" Ahmadinejad asked in a rhetorical jab at the United States and its allies.

The United States, Britain and Canada on Monday announced they were imposing fresh unilateral sanctions on Iran's financial sector. France is also pushing its European Union partners to cut Iranian oil imports.

Ahmadinejad said those positions undercut a push by the so-called P5+1 -- comprising the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia, plus non-member Germany -- to restart stalled talks with Iran.

"They always create limitations for themselves. We have always said we are ready for talks and cooperation. Talks are better than confrontation, but they seem to be clueless and keep going back to confrontation," he said.

Iranian officials have said through several rounds of UN sanctions and additional Western sanctions over the past two years that the measures made the chances of resuming negotiations more remote, although they never shut the door on them.

Ahmadinejad likewise did not exclude talks restarting, but he voiced scepticism. "Well, we'll negotiate but what do (5+1 countries) have left to tell us?" he asked.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, who represents the P5+1, last week urged Iran to resume the talks, which are aimed at removing Western fears that Tehran's nuclear programme is being used to create atomic weapons.

Iran, which has denied any military dimension to its nuclear activities, has said it is ready to return to negotiations, but insists that they include other topics outside the nuclear issue.

In the interview, Ahmadinejad said Iran was in the "same bloc" as Russia and China on the international stage, though each country was pursuing its own interests.

"China and Russia have a closer stance to us when it comes to international issues, rather than the US and its allies," he said.

"We cooperate with Russia and China, but we cannot expect them to sacrifice their national interests -- as they cannot expect us to do so," he said.

Opposition from Russia and China to the new Western sanctions prevented the measures from being brought to the UN Security Council for wider adoption.