Peres: Iran's 'evil' leaders must not be allowed to gain nuclear weapons

Ha'aretz ^ | 17:28 31.01.12 | Haaretz

[RitchieAprile]

Iran's "evil" leaders cannot be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, President Shimon Peres said on Tuesday, calling the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions the world's single most important issue.

Peres' comments came at the opening of the Herzliya Conference, which was attended by World Bank President Robert Zoellick, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, and former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou.

Referring to Iran's contentious nuclear program, the president called the issue "ours and the world's central problem at this time, accusing Iran of attempting to achieve regional and "even global hegemony."

"Nuclear weapons mustn't be allowed to fall into the hands of Iran's Ayatollah regime," Peres said, calling Iran's religious leadership the "most morally corrupt regime in the world."

[RitchieAprile]

nothing to add.

[Chode]

then do something about it, it's for sure the US isn't going to do anything to stop them...

[Pelham]

I heard George Friedman of Stratfor discuss Iran yesterday.

He said that we are mistaken to focus on Iran’s nuclear weapons program, that if Iran developed a weapon tomorrow it would still take years to develop a delivery system, to miniaturize the bomb, and to harden it.

However he said that Iran poses a real and present danger to the world economy with conventional weapons. Iran can shut down the Strait of Hormuz by laying mines with a fleet of small boats. Cheap and low tech, the naval version of the IED.

We can try to locate and remove the mines but you can never be certain you have them all. It only takes one mine to blow a hole in a billion dollar super tanker transiting the Strait, and just the threat of this happening would cause oil prices to skyrocket.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks RitchieAprile.

• Iran Deploys Troops, Ballistic Missiles To Eritrea [2008]