Calling a nuclear Iran a strategic threat, the Israeli President, Mr Shimon Peres, has said his country is keeping “all options” on the table to foil Tehran’s atomic ambitions.
“A nuclear Iran is a strategic threat, not only to Israel but to the world at large. Iran is a centre of moral corruption and it feeds and arms world terrorism,” he said emphasising that the Jewish state has the right and the capacity to defend itself against any threats.
“When we say that all options are on the table, we really mean it,” Mr Peres told a conference of presidents of major American Jewish organisations.
He also said that he had spoken with the leaders of Russia, France and Germany stressing that he understood from them that they are well aware of the great danger posed by the “combination of the leadership of the Ayatollahs with a nuclear bomb’’.
The Israeli leader said expressed appreciation over intensifying economic sanctions against Iran by the international community led by the United States.
His comments came hours after daily Ha’aretz reported that Mr Peres is expected to tell his US counterpart, Mr Barack Obama, next month that he does not believe the Jewish state should attack Iran in the near future.
The report had taken Israel’s senior leadership by surprise and the president used the opportunity to clarify that his thinking on the issue was no different from the others.