President Shimon Peres met with a US Senate Appropriations Committee delegation led by Committee Chairman Senator (D-HI) Daniel K. Inouye and including the Committee’s ranking Republican, Senator (R-MS) Thad Cochran, and senior Committee member Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD). He met them on Sunday at at his Jerusalem Residence.
President Peres, on behalf of the citizens of the State of Israel, thanked Sen. Inouye and told him that, “You stood by our side in the most demanding and difficult moments.” The President also thanked Sen. Cochran and Sen. 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 senators asked to hear President Peres’ views on the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians and on the changes in the Middle East; they also discussed the Iranian issue. 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 Chairman Abu Mazen 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.
Sen. Inouye thanked President Peres for the warm reception and added that, “We are here because we want to demonstrate in this turbulent period that we are with you.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
“Abu Mazen is a serious and solid partner for peace”??? I wonder what he’s been drinking! I guess he had to say all the right things. Does he really believe that garbage? If you say something long enough, you begin to believe it. (As the arabs and the democrats will agree with!)