BICOM

The Iranian nuclear progamme is “ours and the world’s central problem,” Israeli President Shimon Peres said yesterday in the keynote address of the annual Herzliya Conference. “Iran is trying to equip itself with weapons of mass destruction in order to scare the world and achieve its imperialist ambitions under a religious guise,” he said. “Nuclear weapons must not be allowed to [enter] the ayatollahs’ regime in Iran,” he said, adding, “no option should be taken off the table.”

Peres also spoke on the peace process, saying that its recommencement would be the best way for Israel to take advantage of the Arab Spring and the changes rocking the Middle East. “Israel is not the cause of these revolutions… This isn’t an Israeli question but an Arab one. It doesn’t depend on us but it does affect us,” he said. “The only way… is to reach an Israeli-Palestinian accord like we did with Egypt and Jordan. I say this because I believe an agreement is possible.”

Peres was followed by Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, who joined the conference at the IDC Herzliya via video from Amman. Hassan – the brother of Jordan’s late King Hussein and uncle of its current monarch Abdullah II – echoed Peres’s remarks in calling for a renewal of the peace process: “Peace has never been an easy ride for any of us,” he said, “But the comradeship between Muslims, Christians and Jews has existed for longer than has conflict.”