In a meeting with U.S. mideast envoy George Mitchell, Israeli President Shimon Peres called plans to strike Iran “nonsense,” the Jerusalem Post reports.
Peres was quoted Sunday saying, “we’ll strike him,” if Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad refused to back down from his nuclear ambitions.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that an Israeli strike on Iran could have dangerous consequences, the L.A. Times reports.
He said a strike would only delay Iran’s acquisition of a nuclear weapon by a few years.
Gates hinted that Iran would only be deterred from building a weapon if it was convinced that doing so would be “too costly.” Administration officials have said they will increase economic and political sanctions if a diplomatic solution fails.
While meeting with Iran is the primary foreign policy goal of the moment, Mitchell and Peres spoke of other glaring problems in the region.
Mitchell emphasized that the U.S. supports Israel’s security, but he told Peres that the Obama administration supports the formation of a Palestinian state.
In 2004, Bush indicated he wanted to see a Palestinian state by 2009, but Washington didn’t push Israel to make this happen. Will Obama make a strong push for a separate Palestine?
Other Websites