PERES: IRAN TOO CAN BE DESTROYED

Peres: "Iran Too Can Be Destroyed" - Dean Yates and Allyn Fisher-Ilan
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, should bear in mind that his own country could also be destroyed, Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres said on Monday.

"They want to wipe out Israel....Now when it comes to destruction, Iran too can be destroyed," he said. "Israel would defend itself under any condition, but we don't look upon it as an Iranian-Israeli conflict exclusively....(Iran) is basically a danger to the world, not just to us." "If Iran becomes nuclear, many other countries will follow suit...and finally some bombs will reach the hands of terror," Peres warned. (Reuters)

See also Peres' Threat to Iran Not Accidental
"The statement by Shimon Peres highlights the basis of Israeli deterrence and hints to Tehran that it too has a soft underbelly," Col. (Ret.) Shimon Boyarsky, a former head of the Iran department in military intelligence, told Israel's Army Radio Tuesday. "A statement that was repeated three times was not said accidentally." (AP/China Post-Taiwan)