Barak: Decision on Iran strike 'far off'

JERUSALEM, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- A decision by Israel on whether to attack Iranian nuclear facilities remains "very far off," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Akbar Salehi said the country is prepared to resume negotiations on its nuclear program with other countries, and Russia repeated its opposition to sanctions and military threats against the Islamic Republic, The New York Times reported.

Barak's comments came in an Israeli radio interview when he was asked whether the United States had sought advance notice of a possible Israeli strike on Iran, The Washington Post reported.

"We haven't made a decision to go ahead with this matter. We have no date for making decisions. The whole thing is very far off … I don't want to provide estimates. It's certainly not urgent … . I don't suggest that we deal with this as if it's about to happen tomorrow."

The interview came a day before a visit to Israel by Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is to meet with Barak, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, the Israeli army chief of staff, and possibly with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

The talks are expected to focus on responses to Iran's nuclear program.

Tehran says its nuclear efforts are solely for peaceful purposes but Western nations and Israel say the country is working toward building nuclear weapons and a report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, supports that conclusion.

Israel has suggested it could strike Iran if sanctions don't stop what it calls Iran's attempt to develop nuclear weapons.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said at a news conference a military strike on Iran would be a "disaster" and that sanctions being proposed against the country were "seriously intended to have a smothering effect on the Iranian economy and the Iranian population, probably in the hopes of provoking discontent."

Salehi, meanwhile, said during a visit to Turkey his country was ready to resume negotiations with the outside powers trying to reach a a settlement on its nuclear program -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.