After the steady verbal assaults from Iranian president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against Israel, there was an official
reaction on Monday from Vice Premier Shimon Peres who said,
"The president of Iran should remember that Iran can also be
destroyed."
Peres said that Iran is a danger to the whole world, and not
just to Israel. However a source in the Israeli security
establishment said, "It would be better if Peres had not said
what he said."
For months the Iranian president has been using every
opportunity to call for Israel's destruction, to threaten to
carry it out, to deny the Holocaust, and to say that if the
US attacks Iran to stop it from developing nuclear weapons,
Iran will respond by attacking Israel.
Israel has remained silent in the face of Ahmadinejad's
remarks, saying that Iran is not only Israel's problem but
that of the entire world. Leaders all over the world have
condemned the provocations, but the world's military powers
have so far not declared any plan of action against the
Iranian threats. The US is trying to get the UN Security
Council to pass a resolution threatening sanctions, but so
far the move has been blocked by Russia and China.
Iran threatens and insults the US as well. However those
remarks are considered more "routine" coming from Moslem
extremists, and they do not have the emotional resonance of
Holocaust denial and calls for Israel's destruction.
Ahmadinejad's speech seems calculated to irritate and shock,
though it does not seem to be part of any broader strategic
plan. Nonetheless, Iran is sponsoring terrorism throughout
the Middle East, including in Gaza, Lebanon, and attacks on
American forces in Iraq.
According to Brig.-Gen Yosef Kuperwasser, head of the IDF
Military Intelligence's research division, "Wiping Israel off
the map is just one step in Iran's attempt to create a new
world order. Iran is interested not only in turning into a
superpower, but also in changing the world order."
Obtaining nuclear power, Kuperwasser said, would not only
establish Iran as a superpower on a global level, but would
also assist the country in establishing its domestic
regime.
In his interview with Reuters, Vice Premier Shimon Peres also
said, "Teheran is making a mockery of the international
community's efforts to solve the crisis surrounding Iran's
nuclear program."
Peres did not say who should act against Iran if it continues
with its nuclear program, but implied military action should
be led by the United States. Israel is usually asked to
remain on the sidelines in such actions.
Peres urged China and Russia to join Western efforts to
impose sanctions on Iran. The two countries have been
reluctant to back such proposals in the UN Security Council.
If all world powers are united against Iran, military action
can be avoided, Peres said.
"We can prevent all of this threat, without weapons, if there
will be unity," Peres said.
Earlier this week Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote
a letter to US President George W. Bush proposing "new
solutions" to their differences, an Iranian government
spokesman said. Given the Iranian president's recent remarks,
it seems like little more than a publicity stunt designed to
confuse the world.
The White House announced late Monday afternoon that the
letter of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived. The
US sees the letter as an attempt to influence world opinion
on the eve of a United Nations Security Council resolution
regarding Iran. John Negroponte, the head of the US
intelligence, said Monday that "certainly one of the
hypotheses you'd have to examine is whether and in what way
the timing of the dispatch of that letter is connected with
trying in some manner to influence the debate before the
Security Council."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will discuss the Iranian
nuclear project this week with foreign ministers of the five
permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany,
known as the P5+Germany group.
The US is trying to form a broad coalition which will support
a new UN resolution under Chapter 7 of the UN charter that
would include the threat of sanctions against Iran if it does
not comply with international demands regarding its nuclear
project. China and Russia still oppose such a resolution and
wish to maintain a non-sanction approach to Iran.
