Peres: Iranian people not enemy of Israel

The Iranian people are not an enemy of Israel, President of the Jewish State Shimon Peres stated at a meeting with a group of U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday. “The results of the presidential elections in Iran have shown that sanctions (against Tehran) work, and that the Iranian people are in favour of change,” Peres said. He pointed out that the Israeli people are also not an enemy of Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu earlier said that the pressure of the international community does not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons and does not allow it to cross the “red line.” Netanyahu thus commented on the statements made by Iran’s new President Hassan Rouhani who on Tuesday said, in particular, at a press conference in Tehran, that the Western sanctions “do not work” against his country. “The only thing that has worked over the past 20 years is pressure, and the only thing that will work in the future - its intensification,” the Prime Minister of Israel suggested. “It is important to realise that if the sanctions are eased, Iran will go all the way (to create nuclear weapons),” the prime minister warned.