Israel isn’t looking for war with Iran, Barak said, adding that he would be pleased if diplomatic moves and sanctions would sway Tehran away from its nuclear program

Israel isn't looking for war with Iran, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Thursday, adding that he would be pleased if diplomatic moves and sanctions would sway Tehran away from its nuclear program.

In remarks to public radio, Barak said a strike isn’t on table for the moment but said that the Zionist entity would keep all options open.
 
Barak's comments came after U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey said on Wednesday that he did not know whether Israel would alert the United States ahead of time if it decided to take military action against Iran.

He said the United States was convinced that sanctions and diplomatic pressure was the right path to take on Iran, along with "the stated intent not to take any options off the table" - language that leaves open the possibility of future military action. 
"I'm not sure the Israelis share our assessment of that," Dempsey added.

In his comments, Barak said that Israel was "very strong, and far from being paralyzed with fear or fright and must proceed quietly and calmly."

Barak referred to recent European and U.S. financial sanctions against Iran, in the wake of an attack by protesters on the U.K. embassy in Tehran, saying that "any step that would prevent the need for military actions is a positive one, and British and European response in recent days to events in Iran have been correct."

"I would have been happy if sanctions and diplomacy could lead the leadership in Tehran to completely discard the military nuclear program," Barak added.

Barak's comments came after Israeli intelligence sources told the Times of London on Wednesday that a recent explosion in the western Iranian city of Ishafan was not an accident, and that the local uranium conversion plant had been damaged in the blast.

"War is not a picnic, but if Israel is forced to act, we won't have 50,000, 5,000 or even 500 dead, so long as people stay in their homes," he said, noting that rockets fired at Israel by Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War had not killed a single Israeli.