Peres warns Iran, says it could also be 'wiped out'
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=713641&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1
By News Agencies
5/9/2006
Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Monday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, should bear in mind that his own country could also be destroyed.
"Those who threaten to destroy are in danger of being destroyed," Peres told Channel 1 television later Monday.
In an interview to Reuters, Peres said Iran was mocking the international community's attempts to resolve the crisis over its nuclear ambitions and that the credibility of the United Nations Security Council was on the line.
In what Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has described as a threat that must be taken seriously, Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be destroyed.
"They want to wipe out Israel... Now when it comes to destruction, Iran too can be destroyed [but] I don't suggest to say an eye for an eye," Peres told Reuters.
"Israel would defend itself under any condition but we don't look upon it as an Iranian-Israeli conflict exclusively... [Iran] is basically a danger to the world, not just to us."
Iranian officials have argued Ahmadinejad's comments on Israel did not constitute a threat and said its armed forces would retaliate for any attack.
The United States says it would prefer a diplomatic solution to the crisis but warns sanctions and military strikes are options.
Israel, which lies within range of Iranian ballistic missiles, has also refused to rule out military action as a last resort. Israel is believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal.
Peres said he believed Iran would take a unified international front seriously, but was making a "mockery" of the world because it saw divisions in how countries wanted to react.
The Security Council had to act, added Nobel peace laureate Peres, who was awarded the prize along with slain former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for helping negotiate the 1993 Oslo peace accords.
"If the crucial moment will come and they are incapable of taking or making a policy... then they endanger their existence as an important world body," he said.
An Iranian official said Monday that Ahmadinejad had written to U.S. President George W. Bush in an unprecedented attempt to ease tensions.
That followed Iran's stance Sunday that it would reject any UN esolution demanding it halt work on atomic fuel.
A draft Security Council resolution, fashioned by Britain and France and backed by the U.S. will ask that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment activities.
Peres warned of a nuclear arms race if Iran produced a nuclear weapon.
"If Iran becomes nuclear many other countries will follow suit... and whoever will have a conflict will produce a bomb, and finally some bombs will reach the hands of terror," the vice premier and Kadima MK said.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said last week that the world is capable of destroying the Iranian nuclear installations.
In 1981, Israel launched an air strike to destroy Iraq's unfinished nuclear reactor. Experts have said such a pinpointed strike against Iran would not be possible, because Tehran's nuclear facilities are intentionally dispersed throughout the country, some of them are hidden underground.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=713641&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1
By News Agencies
5/9/2006
Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Monday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, should bear in mind that his own country could also be destroyed.
"Those who threaten to destroy are in danger of being destroyed," Peres told Channel 1 television later Monday.
In an interview to Reuters, Peres said Iran was mocking the international community's attempts to resolve the crisis over its nuclear ambitions and that the credibility of the United Nations Security Council was on the line.
In what Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has described as a threat that must be taken seriously, Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be destroyed.
"They want to wipe out Israel... Now when it comes to destruction, Iran too can be destroyed [but] I don't suggest to say an eye for an eye," Peres told Reuters.
"Israel would defend itself under any condition but we don't look upon it as an Iranian-Israeli conflict exclusively... [Iran] is basically a danger to the world, not just to us."
Iranian officials have argued Ahmadinejad's comments on Israel did not constitute a threat and said its armed forces would retaliate for any attack.
The United States says it would prefer a diplomatic solution to the crisis but warns sanctions and military strikes are options.
Israel, which lies within range of Iranian ballistic missiles, has also refused to rule out military action as a last resort. Israel is believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal.
Peres said he believed Iran would take a unified international front seriously, but was making a "mockery" of the world because it saw divisions in how countries wanted to react.
The Security Council had to act, added Nobel peace laureate Peres, who was awarded the prize along with slain former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for helping negotiate the 1993 Oslo peace accords.
"If the crucial moment will come and they are incapable of taking or making a policy... then they endanger their existence as an important world body," he said.
An Iranian official said Monday that Ahmadinejad had written to U.S. President George W. Bush in an unprecedented attempt to ease tensions.
That followed Iran's stance Sunday that it would reject any UN esolution demanding it halt work on atomic fuel.
A draft Security Council resolution, fashioned by Britain and France and backed by the U.S. will ask that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment activities.
Peres warned of a nuclear arms race if Iran produced a nuclear weapon.
"If Iran becomes nuclear many other countries will follow suit... and whoever will have a conflict will produce a bomb, and finally some bombs will reach the hands of terror," the vice premier and Kadima MK said.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said last week that the world is capable of destroying the Iranian nuclear installations.
In 1981, Israel launched an air strike to destroy Iraq's unfinished nuclear reactor. Experts have said such a pinpointed strike against Iran would not be possible, because Tehran's nuclear facilities are intentionally dispersed throughout the country, some of them are hidden underground.