Foreign Affairs
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President Peres to the Iranian leadership:
"There is an opportunity to solve this issue diplomatically. It is in your hands. Reject terrorism. Stop the nuclear program. Stop the development of long-range missiles."
President Peres on the peace process:
"While the peace process is difficult and complicated, we shall not give up. We shall not postpone it. We shall continue negotiations until a peaceful solution is reached. We negotiate because we disagree. We negotiate to convert disagreement into an agreement."
The President of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres, delivered a speech before a plenary session of the Mexican Senate. President Peres addressed the major challenges, threats and opportunities facing Israel and the international community including the Iranian nuclear threat, the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians and the importance of strengthening Mexican-Israeli relations.
President Peres addressed the Iranian leadership and the people of Iran and said they have an obligation to end their race for nuclear weapons and abide by the international agreement, "There are countries that try to take advantage of this transition (in the Middle East). And attempt to overpower other countries and stop their march to the new age. They do it by building nuclear threats, centers of terror, tongues of hatred. Iran has signed an interim agreement with the P5+1. Success or failure of the deal will be judged by results, not by words. As far as Israel is concerned, we do not consider the Iranian people our enemies. We do not share a border. We do share a common history. It demonstrates that we can be friendly. There is an opportunity to solve this issue diplomatically. It is in your hands. Reject terrorism. Stop the nuclear program. Stop the development of long-range missiles. Israel like the rest of the international community prefers a diplomatic solution. But the international community will not tolerate a nuclear Iran. No one threatens Iran. When Iran will cease to threaten others, it will liberate itself from the burden which it has brought upon itself. I truly hope that this deal will free the Iranian people from being a source of menace and will turn it into a contributing nation for peace. Only time will tell. Israel extends its hand in peace to all its neighbors. But we have learned from bitter experience to beware of tyrants. Tyranny has no message for the future. It offers dark nights instead of enlightened days. The real promise of progress lies in the employment of science and technology by a society which seeks justice and peace."
President Peres also addressed the attempts to make a breakthrough in the peace talks with the Palestinians and said, "As far as Israel is concerned, our greatest challenge today is to bring an end to the conflict with the Palestinians. We restarted negotiations with the Palestinians. It is a serious attempt to bring it to a successful conclusion. Peace will open new vistas, both to us and the Palestinians. Each of us – regardless of ethnicity and religion – was created equal in the image of the Lord. And has an equal chance to become better. We were not born to rule over other people. We have no ambition to control land which is not ours. We have shown it in fact when we made peace with Egypt and peace with Jordan. We returned to them all their land and assets which fell in our hands as a result of wars which we didn't initiate. This peace withstands the storms in our region. Our negotiations with the Palestinians twenty years ago were opened in Oslo. We were first to recognize the Palestinians as a people. As an opening, we agreed with the Palestinians that they will have autonomy as a first step. Gradually, they would become an independent state, living side by side with the State of Israel. Later on we decided unilaterally to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, leaving it to the independent control of the Palestinians. Unfortunately, the Hamas organization forced the Palestinian Authority out and turned the Strip into a launching pad, firing missiles against Israeli civilians. There is no reason for it. It is without purpose. It became a setback for all peace-loving people, on both sides. It interrupted the peace process and it produced a warning that if it should continue likewise in the West Bank, it may bring face the same unfortunate results. I think the entire international community, has to call upon the Hamas in Gaza to stop terror and permit peace. While the peace process is difficult and complicated, we shall not give up. We shall not postpone it. We shall continue negotiations until a peaceful solution is reached. We negotiate because we disagree. We negotiate to convert disagreement into an agreement. To turn hostility into friendship. To convert conflict into goodwill. While we are still negotiating, we have already an agreement for the basis of the solution: the two state solution. Two states for two peoples. Living side by side in peace. The opening has happened and the solution is agreed upon. What we have to do is build a bridge between the two."
President Peres addressed relations with Mexico and said, "We salute your leadership, your spirit of innovation, your readiness to take off and fulfill untapped potentials. We have come here as friends in the hopes to create joint initiatives based on Mexican goodwill and Israeli goodwill. I believe that through wide-ranging and daring collaboration, we shall benefit from the fruits of friendship. As I stand before the highest democratic institution of Mexico, I wish to express my high regard for this esteemed democratic forum. Your Senate is a leading force to offer freedom, justice and prosperity to your peoples, to your neighbors, and to the rest of the world. We are delighted to be your friends, and wish to be your partners in depth, height, and progress."
Earlier in the day President Peres opened the 'Israel-Mexico Business Forum which included 500 Israeli and Mexican companies.
Photo Mark Newman GPO
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"The international community has placed demands on Iran to cease and desist the building of capabilities to produce atomic bombs that will threaten us and threaten the peace of the world. They put together a sanctions regime that has brought Iran to its knees, crippling sanctions. The purpose of those sanctions was to get Iran to dismantle – dismantle – its nuclear enrichment capabilities, which are used for atomic bombs and its heavy water plutonium reactor, which is used for atomic bombs...
Now there's a deal. Why the Iranians came to deal is obvious: because the sanctions are biting their economy, crippling that regime. So they came to the table because they have to. And what is being offered now, and I'm continuously updated in detail, I know what I'm talking about. What is being proposed now is a deal in which Iran retains all of that capacity. Not one centrifuge is dismantled. Not one. Iran gets to keep tons of low enriched uranium, and they can take these centrifuges, which are not dismantled, in the halls, underground – using advanced centrifuges that they've already installed, some of them, that are not dismantled – and they can rush within a few weeks, maybe a couple of months, that's all, and create at the time of their choosing, the fissile material for a bomb.
Iran does not give up anything of that. It makes a minor concession that is meaningless in today's technology and in their current capacities. In other words, none of the demands of the Security Council resolutions, which the P5+1 powers passed are met. None of them! But what is given to them is the beginning of the rollback of sanctions. This means that the sanctions that took years to put in place are beginning to roll back with several billions of dollars of assets that are freed up; the automotive industry contracts that is central to Iran's economy freed up; petrochemical industry freed up; matters that involved gold and even petroleum revenues freed up some...
This is the deal that is proposed now. Iran does not roll back its nuclear weapons-making capacities at all, but the P5+1 are rolling back sanctions. That's a bad deal. It's a dangerous deal because it keeps Iran as a nuclear threshold nation and it may very well bring about a situation where the sanctions are dissolved or collapsed. It's a bad and dangerous deal that deals with the thing that affects our survival...
We shall continue to work with the rest of the world, and it's good that we have now a few days because this is not only in the interest of Israel; this is in the interest of the entire world. Yes, we speak up, but I think there are other nations in this region and perhaps beyond who can now unite and say: we do not want a nuclear Iran and we stand together to make sure that Iran dismantles its enrichment capacities, its heavy water plutonium reactor, all the things that they need to make nuclear weapons. They're not entitled to it and it is possible right now, given the precariousness and vulnerability of the Iranian economy, to press forward the demand for Iran to dismantle its nuclear bomb-making capacity...."
President Peres at state memorial to David Ben-Gurion in Sde Boker (10 Nov 2013):
"Yesterday the P5+1 did not come to an agreement, and rightly so. A deal which does not prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power must not be signed. The wording at hand does not answer this requirement. Preventing a nuclear Iran was the P5+1's very purpose and I hope that it remains so. This is also the unyielding position of the State of Israel. We are not opposed to diplomacy to achieve this goal. But there is no point in a deal which would not prevent Iran from becoming nuclear. I believe that our government's position, expressed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is right."
PM Netanayhu at Cabinet meeting (10 Nov 2013):
"Over the weekend I spoke with US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
I told them that according to the information reaching Israel, the apparent deal is bad and dangerous. It is dangerous not just for us, it is also dangerous for them. It is dangerous for world peace because it lowers the pressure of sanctions that took years to build while on the other hand, Iran, in practice, retains its nuclear enrichment capability as well as the ability to advance along the plutonium track. I emphasize that the proffered deal does not include the dismantling of even one centrifuge.
I asked all the leaders – why the haste? I proposed that they wait, that they consider the matter seriously. This is an historic process and these are historic decisions. I asked to wait. It is good that this is what was decided in the end but I am not deluding myself – there is a strong desire to reach an agreement, I hope not an agreement at any price, and if there is to be an agreement then it needs to be a good agreement and not a bad agreement. I hope that they will reach a good agreement and we will do our utmost to convince the major powers and the leaders to avoid a bad agreement."
PM Netanyahu after meeting with US Secretary Kerry (8 Nov 2013):
"I met Secretary Kerry right before he leaves to Geneva. I reminded him that he said that no deal is better than a bad deal. And the deal that is being discussed in Geneva right now is a bad deal. It’s a very bad deal. Iran is not required to take apart even one centrifuge. But the international community is relieving sanctions on Iran for the first time after many years. Iran gets everything that it wanted at this stage and pays nothing. And this is when Iran is under severe pressure.
I urge Secretary Kerry not to rush to sign, to wait, to reconsider, to get a good deal. But this is a bad deal, a very, very, bad deal. It’s the deal of a century for Iran; it’s a very dangerous and bad deal for peace and the international community."
PM Netanyahu prior to meeting with US Secretary Kerry (8 Nov 2013):
"I understand that the Iranians are walking around very satisfied in Geneva, as well they should be, because they got everything, and paid nothing, they wanted. They wanted relief from sanctions after years of a grueling sanctions regime. They got that. They are paying nothing because they are not reducing in any way their nuclear enrichment capability. So Iran got the deal of the century and the international community got a bad deal. This is a very bad deal.
Israel utterly rejects it and what I am saying is shared by many, many in the region whether or not they express it publicly. Israel is not obliged by this agreement and Israel will do everything it needs to defend itself, to defend the security of its people."
PM Netanyahu at the conference on joint strategic dialogue between the Government of Israel and world Jewish communities (7 Nov 2013):
"Israel understands that there are proposals on the table in Geneva today that ease the pressure on Iran for concessions that are not concessions at all. The proposal would allow Iran to retain the capabilities to make nuclear weapons. Israel totally opposes these proposals. I believe that adopting them is a mistake of historic proportions. They must be rejected outright.
The sanctions regime has brought the Iranian economy to the edge of the abyss. And the P5+1 can compel Iran to fully dismantle its nuclear weapons program. This means ending all enrichment, stopping all work on the heavy water plutonium reactor. Anything else will make a peaceful solution less likely. Israel always reserves the right to defend itself, by itself, against any threat."
PM Netanyahu to delegation of US members of Congress (7 Nov 2013):
"If the news that I am receiving of the impending proposal by the P5+1 is true, this is the deal of the century, for Iran. Because Iran is essentially giving nothing and it's getting all the air taken out, the air begins to be taken out of the pressure cooker that it took years to build in the sanctions regime. What we're having today is a situation that Iran is giving up, at best, a few days of enrichment time, but the whole international regime's sanctions policy has the air taken out of it. That's a big mistake, it will relieve all the pressure inside Iran, it is a historic mistake, a grievous historic error."
PM Netanyahu after meeting with US Secretary Kerry (6 Nov 2013):
"I believe that as long as they continue their goal to enrich uranium, to get nuclear weapons, the pressure should be maintained and even increased because they're increasing enrichment, and I believe that it's possible with intense pressure because of the sanctions regime led in large part by the United States to get Iran to fully dismantle its nuclear weapons program, and that's really what we're seeking.
A full, peaceful, complete dismantling of Iran's nuclear weapons capability, end of all enrichment, end of all centrifuges, end of the plutonium reactor. If this is achieved, I'd welcome it. I'd be very worried with any partial deals that enable Iran to maintain those capabilities but begin to reduce sanctions because I think this could undermine the longevity and durability of the sanctions regime."
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His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan on Sunday met with Israeli President Shimon Peres on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at the Dead Sea. The two leaders discussed ways to revive peace negotiations in the region and means to overcome obstacles facing the peace process.
His Majesty and President Peres stressed that the two state solution is the only viable solution to end the conflict, achieve peace between the Palestinians and Israelis and enhance security and stability in the region.
King Abdullah also highlighted the importance of the Arab Peace Initiative to realize a just and comprehensive peace in the region.
President Peres stressed that it is time to promote peace and help build a better future for coming generations and thanked His Majesty for his efforts to promote peace.
The two leaders hailed the US administration's efforts, led by US Secretary of State John Kerry, to revive the peace process.
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