Ehud Barak. Photo: Barak Weizmann/Wikimedia Commons.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said global inaction on the violence in Syria is a sign that most countries cannot count on outside support or protection, even in terrible circumstances.

Barak said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that this inaction discourages Israelis from supporting uncertain moves for peace such as the exchange of territories with the Palestinians.

In Syria, Barak said, thousands of people are being “slaughtered by their own leader and the world doesn’t move,” according to the Associated Press. Even “unspeakable atrocities” do not guarantee “that there will be enough sense of purpose, sense of direction, unity of political will, readiness to translate it into action… in a way that will put an end to it.”

When it comes to Iran, he added, there “should be a readiness and capability to launch a surgical operation” if sanctions are deemed ineffective.