Peres: I believe Israel, world approaching military option on Iran nuclear threat

President says nations of the world made commitments to Israel and they must now make good on those commitments to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability.

President Shimon Peres said Friday that he believes that Israel and the world may soon take military action against Iran. Despite this, Peres added that a distinction must be made between the public discourse and what happens in practice.

In comments to Israel Channel 2, Peres said “Intelligence services of all countries understand that time is running out and they are warning their leaders.”

“It would seem that Iran is getting closer to having nuclear weapons,” Peres said, adding, “In the time that remains, we must urge the other nations of the world to act, and tell them that it is time to stand behind the promise that was made to us, to fulfill their responsibility, whether that means serious sanctions or whether it means a military operation.”

Responding to the recent media uproar over Israeli leaders publicly disagreeing in comments to the press as to the relative wisdom of a military attack on Iran, the president said, “It may well be that comments on the topic serve their own function. We must make a distinction between what is done and what is said. I don’t think any decision has been made, except to hold the world to their duty to respond, and we want to see what they will do.”

Peres also spoke about the Palestinians, saying, “We are in a situation in which all of the blinds in the Middle East are closing, whether due to revolutions or to increased extremism.”

“We still have [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas’ and [Palestinian Prime Minister Salam] Fayyad’s mailbox, and we must not let that slip,” said Peres. “They’re both serious men, and I believe that they want an agreement, they also have internal problems with the negotiations, but we have no choice and we must reach an agreement with them, or else we will be only be left with Hamas.”

Defense Minister Ehud Barak also related to the Iranian nuclear threat, saying, “We can’t remove any option from the table, but there is no immediate emergency. Our position has not changed and will not change, we believe that Iran must be prevented from achieving nuclear [weapons] capability.”