Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Shimon Peres Opposes Attack on Iran

The international community should engage in a ?moral? attack on Iran, not a military one, President Shimon Peres said in an interview on Monday, adding that Tehran?s support of terror was as much a global concern as the economic crisis.

Peres? comments came after the United Nation?s nuclear watchdog released a report last week, which stated there was evidence that Iran was working to achieve nuclear weapons capabilities.

Israel and the United States have said the report proved that the world needed to do more to stop Iran?s nuclear ambitions, urging fiercer sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Speaking to CNN?s Pierce Morgan on Monday, Peres said that he felt a military option was not the first option at hand to thwart Iran?s race for a nuclear bomb, saying he ?wouldn?t suggest to start immediately with a military operation.?

?I would rather prefer to see tighter economic sanctions, closer political pressure and what is lacking very much is an attack in the moral sense,? the president said, calling Iran ?a spoiled country, it?s morally corrupt.?

?They are the only country threatening to destroy another country, openly. They arrest the opposition, they shoot around, they spread arms, they encourage every center of terror all over the world,? Peres added.

Peres also rejected the notion that Israel would act alone against Iran?s nuclear program, saying that ?Israel will first of all see what the world is doing.?

?We don?t want to jump alone, we are part of the civilization of the family of international responsible countries and we expect that leaders that make a promise will fulfill it,? he added.

The president also reiterated the Israeli position that Iran was not an exclusively Israeli problem, saying that the menace of Iran?s terror network was as global as the economic crisis.

?It?s a danger. And today terror is a global matter, very much like economy. They can arrive, [like in] 9/11, to New York, they can arrive to Chechnya, they can arrive to Moscow. It?s mobile and its dangerous,? he said, adding: ?So I don?t think we have to feel alone in that respect.?

For more, go to Haaretz.com

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.