Peres blames Iran for no Palestinian state

Tue, 26 Jan 2010

Israeli President Shimon Peres declares Tehran as the main obstacle to the creation of a viable Palestinian State.

"The big problem today is Iran," he said in an interview with German television channel, ARD.

The 86-year-old politician who arrived in the German capital of Berlin on an official visit to mark the so-called 'International Holocaust Remembrance Day,' was especially critical of Iran's support for the Islamic resistance movements in the region, namely Hamas and Hezbollah.

Iran's connections with the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas, he claimed, have until now prevented the creation of a Palestinian state.

Observers in the region, however, insist that Israel's preconditions on the creation of a Palestinian state render a viable, independent and sovereign Palestinian state impossible.

Tel Aviv says a future Palestinian state would have to be demilitarized, cede control of its airspace to Israel and recognize the territory occupied and run by the regime in Tel Aviv as the 'Jewish homeland.'

Israel also geographically separates Gaza and the West Bank, strangling trade and other exchanges between the two territories at will.

"Iran supports Hezbollah, which has divided Lebanon,” Peres claimed. “They bought 80,000 missiles. We must refer to the source, to the heart of the problem."

According to observers, the Israeli president is infamous for making baseless claims during his foreign tours in efforts to demonize Hezbollah and Hamas. Such claims have been refuted and condemned by Lebanese officials and other world leaders, namely the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Referring to efforts to contain Iran's peaceful nuclear program, the Israeli leader also expressed concern for a world where "nuclear proliferation is no longer controllable."

Israel, the sole possessor of nuclear warheads in the Middle East, accuses Tehran of making efforts to build a nuclear bomb and has openly threatened Iran with military strikes should the country continue enriching uranium.

As one of the four countries that have refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Tel Aviv has maintained the policy of neither admitting nor denying its possession of nuclear warheads. However, it is widely believed that Israel has some 200 nuclear warheads in its arsenal.

The doctrine of nuclear ambiguity has enabled Israel to deter foes for decades in a region with only one alleged nuclear power.

In order to maintain its military advantage, Tel Aviv insists on preventing other Muslim countries, especially in the Middle East, from acquiring nuclear capabilities while remaining outside of the international nuclear non-proliferation system.

Peres' visit to Germany comes after the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Chancellor Angela Merkel last week in a bid to press Berlin to sell six Dolphin-class diesel submarines to Tel Aviv.

Israel had previously received three submarines as a donation from the government of the then German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

The Dolphin submarines are among the most sophisticated and capable submarines in the world that could be equipped with nuclear missiles.

Built in German shipyards for the Israel Navy, the submarine is capable of carrying American-supplied Harpoon cruise missiles equipped with nuclear warheads.

While the restrictive German export regulations bar the sale of weapons to crisis areas, the German government has justified the submarine sale by invoking its "special responsibility" towards Tel Aviv.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117110§ionid=351020604.