Peres: We'll win with better technology

Peres was first senior Israeli official to publicly acknowledged a reality where Iran has nuclear capabilities.

By HERB KEINON
Peres 248.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
Peres 248.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
Vice Premier Shimon Peres, the father of Israel's alleged nuclear capabilities, said Monday that if Iran builds a nuclear bomb, "we shall develop and can develop better technology to face them." Peres's comments came at a September 11 memorial ceremony held at the home of US Ambassador Richard Jones in Herzliya Pituah. This was the first time a senior Israeli official publicly acknowledged that Israel might have to adapt to a reality where Iran has nuclear capabilities. "Even if Iran gets the nuclear bomb, and I hope that it doesn't, we shall develop and can develop better technology to face them," Peres said. A Peres aide, asked afterward what Peres was referring to, said he meant the world would develop the technology to deal with the nuclear threat. "The 'we' here is the world," he stressed. Jones, meanwhile, used the somber ceremony to issue a strong rebuke of Teheran and Damascus. "Iran and Syria continue to behave outside the norms of morality, and continue to provide material and political support to numerous terrorist groups," he said. According to Jones, "all UN member states must now work together so that the new arms embargo created by UN Security Council Resolution 1701 becomes an effective first step in ending forever the duplicitous shell game that these two rogue states have played for years to mask their violent foreign policies." The hour-long ceremony, which featured a 21-gun salute and a bugle rendition of "taps," took place in the presence of the family members of five Israelis who were killed in the September 11 attacks. According to Jones, "Iran is a particularly worrying case." He said the threat "posed by Iran's brazen defiance of the international community is unacceptable, and the regime in Teheran must understand that such irresponsible behavior will have consequences." Jones said that a nuclear armed Iran fostering terrorism and denying Israel's right to exist "represents a scenario that simply cannot be allowed to occur." According to Jones, a nuclear Iran would lead to nuclear blackmail and embolden terrorists. "Even worse," he said, "nuclear materials would no doubt eventually find their way into terrorists' hands."