'Israel cannot go it alone on Iran'

Israeli President Shimon Peres adding voice to the speculation on a possible Israeli attack upon Iran,said that the US should lead any strike designed to prevent the Islamic republic from obtaining nuclear weapons, dpa reported.

"It's clear that, alone, we cannot do it. It's clear we have to go together with America," he told Israel's Channel 2 television in a special interview to mark his 89th birthday.

"There are questions of coordination, of timing, but, for all that, the danger is great, this time we are not alone," he said.

Peres, whose presidential duties are almost exclusively ceremonial, made his comments after days of increasing speculation that Israel would attack Iran in a matter of months, or even weeks, in order to thwart Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons programme.

The president's remarks appeared to contradict the stance supposedly adopted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak who, if reports are to be believed, favour a unilateral attack.

Peres told interviewer Yonit Levy that he was "convinced it's an American interest" to stop Iran, and he was convinced that President Barack Obamba "sees it as an American interest."

Asked how Israel should act is if did not succeed in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Peres replied that Plan A was to stop Iran from going nuclear, and added succinctly, "there is no plan B."

He emphasized that there exists no doubt that a nuclear-armed Iran would be dangerous, and there was equally no doubt that Israel had to relate to the matter with "the utmost seriousness."


/Trend/