Peres: Talk of strike in Iran unfounded

bjhere68 · Site Admin Joined: 31 Jul 2008 Posts: 2161

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Talk of a possible Israeli strike in Iran is "unfounded" and the solution to the nuclear standoff with Teheran is "not military," President Shimon Peres said Thursday during a meeting with special US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell.

Peres said that confronting the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon required broad international cooperation, adding that the world must examine whether dialogue with the Islamic republic was authentic or merely "a bluff."

Peres's statement was seemingly at odds with remarks he made Sunday, when he warned that if US President Barack Obama's overtures to Teheran proved fruitless Israel would be forced to "strike" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Meanwhile, during his meeting with the US emmisary, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman cited the arrest of Hizbullah activists in Egypt as proof of Iran's growing influence and the threat that it posed not only to Israel but to the entire region.

"An Iran in possession of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, coupled with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza and Hizbullah in Lebanon, is the real problem," Lieberman said, stating that "we must first of all put a stop to the intensification and expansion of the Iranian threat."

The Israeli comments came after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned against an Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, asserting that such a strike would have dangerous consequences, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday.

According to the report, Gates explained that a strike was dangerous because it would unify Iran, "cement their determination to have a nuclear program, and also build into the whole country an undying hatred of whoever hits them."

Gates reportedly told a group of Marine Corps students that a military strike on the country's nuclear sites would probably not prevent Teheran from acquiring nuclear weapons and would only delay the Iranian nuclear program from one to three years.

The only way to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring a nuclear bomb is if the "Iranians themselves decide it's too costly," the newspaper quoted the US defense secretary as saying.

Gates stressed that although US President Barack Obama needs to consider "the full range of options," he himself believes the US government must look at every way "to increase the cost of that program to them, whether it's through economic sanctions or other things."

Other countries should focus on arguments that a nuclear bomb would harm Iran's security rather than improve it, "particularly if it launches an arms race in the Middle East," Gates concluded.

Gates's comments were delivered on Monday and were reportedly confirmed by a US defense official.
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