Peres: “We Have the Highest Respect for the President”

Max Samis — March 1, 2012 – 10:31 am | Barack Obama | Foreign Policy | Iran | Israel Comments (1) Add a comment

Before his meeting with President Barack Obama this Sunday, Israeli President Shimon Peres took the time to speak with Barbara Walters on ABC’s morning talk show The View. When asked about what Israel and the United States are doing in regards to stopping Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Peres briefly discussed cooperation between the Obama Administration and Israel and effusively praised the President for his leadership of international sanctions. Peres said:

I think there are three points which are totally agreed between the American administration and the Israeli government. Number one, that the world is in danger if Iran will get a nuclear bomb. It’s a very serious problem, not just because of the bomb but very much because of the nature of the present government. They support terror, they are hanging people without trial. They are really trying to take over the Middle East, and it may affect all the world….

Number two, all of us agree that he shouldn’t, that the Iranians shouldn’t have a nuclear bomb, then all options are on the table—all options are all options. We don’t have to specify.

But right now, President Obama started with a very sophisticated attempt to achieve the same thing by putting on sanctions - political and economic - and he put in this policy to get out of the Europeans and others. So the policy’s quite clear and well, there are different speculations. But right now the policy is to try to stop the Iranians from having a bomb by economic and political sanctions.

I think the relations with Obama are in a good shape. We have the highest respect for the President. I think there are ongoing talks… but right now we act together and I think in full agreement.

You can watch the interview here or below.

Haaretz also reported on an interview that Peres did with Charlie Rose:

Israeli President Shimon Peres on Thursday said that U.S. President Barack Obama is ‘a great president and a great friend of Israel,’ and that security cooperation between the U.S. and Israel is ‘the best we’ve ever had.’

In an hour-long interview with American broadcaster Charlie Rose, conducted before a large audience at New York’s 92nd Street Y, Peres said that he does not want to interfere in American politics, but he is stating his opinion on Obama ‘because it’s true,’ adding that he has ‘the highest respect’ for Obama for overseeing the current relationship between the two countries.

Click here to watch the interview.

Read more about President Obama’s efforts to stop Iran here.

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