WASHINGTON - The clock for the Iranian regime's downfall is ticking, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a lecture at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Friday. However, "it's clear to me that the clock toward the collapse of this regime works much slower than the clock which ticks toward Iran becoming a nuclear military power," Barak said in his talk in memory of Haaretz defense correspondent Ze'ev Schiff, who died three years ago.

"And this is the reason why simultaneously with diplomacy and effective sanctions, we recommend to all players not to remove any option from the table and we adopt this attitude for ourselves as well," Barak said.

The defense minister, who is visiting Washington for talks with U.S. officials, also said he hopes that in a few weeks indirect talks will begin with the Palestinians.

Regarding doubts voiced about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Barak noted that in the United States, "you choose a president; he will be there for four years and he will probably have certain constraints," but his term is not threatened.

"In Israel, a prime minister wakes up in the morning to see whether he is still there .... And I always answer this by returning the challenge to the doubters ... let's push them to the negotiating room. We are ready to go there."

But he said that in Israel there is opposition from both the right and left. Barak mentioned the joke about the soldier who was rejected as a pilot, so he tried out to be an anti-aircraft gunner because if he cannot fly, no one else will. "And I tell my colleagues, leading former ministers of Israel ... we do not need anti-aircraft artillery now; we need all the support that you can give to move on with a serious process that will put to the test both sides and their readiness to go."

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