BICOM

Israel’s President Shimon Peres yesterday discussed a range of strategic issues, focusing on the threat posed by Iran and Hezbollah with the President of the European Commission and the Secretary General of NATO.

Peres is currently on a week-long trip to Europe and met yesterday in Brussels with Juan Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. At a joint press conference, Peres addressed the challenge of preventing Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, saying “My own impression is that the sanctions did more than was expected, but not yet enough to achieve the goal.” He also outlined Iran’s support for groups such as Hezbollah and commented, “All this should be stopped, preferably economically and politically but without any compromise. The goal must be achieved.” Following their meeting, Peres’ office issued a statement urging Barroso to “take action” against Hezbollah.

Barroso declared his support for a two-state solution and said, “I know President Peres is committed to achieve peace too. So my call here today is to use our energy, our capacity and our leadership to resume negotiations on the Middle East peace process.”

Peres returned to the theme of Hezbollah during a meeting with NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Peres said, “We are monitoring the ongoing attempts to build up weapons by Hezbollah which is stockpiling weapons and missiles for terrorism and war… Hezbollah is sowing destruction in Lebanon and must be seen as a terrorist organization in every way.”

The European Union has so far resisted recent pressure to proscribe Hezbollah as a terrorist entity in the wake of a Bulgarian investigation which concluded that the group was to blame for a bus bomb at the Black Sea resort of Burgas, which killed five Israelis and one Bulgarian last summer.