Itongadol.- President Shimon Peres on Sunday said that he would have no problem meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
"Why not?" he said in an interview with CNN\’s Richard Quest at the Globes Israel Business Conference in Tel Aviv. Israel and Iran are not enemies, he said.
The important factor was not the man in question, but his policies, and the goal was to turn enemies into friends. Peres compared the decision to Israel\’s choice to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat ahead of the Oslo Peace agreements.
The fact that structural players in Iran opposed Rouhani’s perspective complicated the matter, he said. “If it was only him I\’d take it with greater assurance, but there are other structures, other people. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard, half army and half organization, spreads terror all over the world and I\’m not so sure they support the president. We have to see the balance of the situation."
Peres also said he believed relations with the United States had not been harmed over the Iran issue, and that US President Barack Obama remained a solid friend to Israel. He stressed the importance of using the next six months to sign a final deal that would ensure Iran would not obtain a nuclear weapon.
Peres also addressed the state of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, saying that though it was possible, Israel’s unsuccessful previous attempts to move peace forward left the population reluctant. In particular, the experience of withdrawing from Gaza, which led to a Hamas takeover and regular rocket fire, raised security concerns.