President Shimon Peres on Sunday hosted a US Senate Appropriations Committee
delegation at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem led by committee chairman
Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) and including the committee’s ranking
Republican, Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi), and senior member Sen. Barbara A.
Mikulski (D-Maryland).
Peres, 88, thanked Inouye, 87, and told him that
“you stood by our side in the most demanding and difficult moments.”
The
president also thanked Cochran and Mikulski and told them that, “Israel is lucky
to have had the US by its side over the course of history. And still today we
are working together towards a better Middle East, with freedom, equality and
democracy for all.”
The president emphasized that Iran should not be
regarded just as a problem but as a tangible threat to peace in the Middle East
and around the world, and added that the solution to preventing Iran from
attaining nuclear weapons is in the hands of the world’s leaders and requires a
broad coalition that will both enact clear economic sanctions against it and set
a clear red line that will prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons of mass
destruction.
On the peace process, the president reiterated his view that
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is a serious and positive partner
for peace and that Israel and the Palestinians must proceed to direct and secret
negotiations toward a solution, given that the issues on the agenda are well-known.