Brussels, 12/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 12 March, Israeli President Shimon Peres called for the intervention of an Arab League force in Syria. “The best option to put an end to the tragedy in Syria is to allow the Arab League, of which Syria is a member, to intervene”, Peres said during a 45-minute speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. While, for Peres, “the intervention of a Western force would be perceived as 'foreign interference', the League of Arab States can - and must - create a provisional government in Syria to stop the massacre and prevent Syria from imploding”. “The United Nations must support the Arab League and create a force of Arab UN peacekeepers”, Peres stated.
During a press conference, Peres said that “there would doubtless be intervention, and the Arab League should take control of things with the support of the UN (…) We are not in favour of armed intervention because we think that foreign countries can't understand the situation as well as the Arab countries. The Arab countries have the identity and the necessary force”, he said, adding that “instead of looking for aid abroad, the United Nations ought to support an Arab League mission”.
Peres said that a force “does not necessarily mean military. There are forces that don't fight but prevent fighting - an Arab force with United Nations peacekeepers.” He took the example of the security keeping forces at the border between Israel and Lebanon which do not fight.
Supporting the Iranian people. In his speech, Peres reiterated the need to take action against Iran and Hezbollah, which he accused of intervening in Syria without the authorisation of the Lebanese government. In his view, “the biggest threat is the Iranian regime - a dictatorship draped with a religious mantle”. He said that “no one is threatening Iran. Iran threatens others” and wants to create nuclear arms without wanting to admit it. He called for a clear voice to be heard in the face of the human rights violations in Iran and in the face of a regime which, in his opinion, is spending its manna of oil for terrorism and the supply of arms rather than sharing it with its people. “The ayatollahs must not be able to falsify the election results”, he said. “Your voice will show the Iranian people that the world has not turned its back on them”, he told the MEPs (our translation throughout). (CG/transl.fl)