Peres Raises Prospect of Attacking Iran

In an interview today, Israeli President Shimon Peres once again raised the prospect of attacking Iran, saying that if the talks proposed by President Obama did not get Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to “soften” its stance on its civilian nuclear program “we’ll strike him.”

The threat is the latest in a long line of bellicose statements by Israeli officials about the prospect of attacking the Shi’ite nation, but the first since Israel’s new rightist government took power. Israel’s previous government, of which Peres’ Labor Party was also a part, repeatedly threatened to attack Iran over the program.

Peres seemed optimistic about the recent falling out between Egypt and Iran would enable them to “unify all his opponents – the Sunnis and the Europeans, as well as those afraid of nuclear weapons and terror.”

The Israeli government has repeatedly accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons, though the most recent US National Intelligence Estimate says Iran has not had such a program in many years and the IAEA has repeatedly certified that Iran is not diverting any of its uranium to any use other than its nuclear energy program.