Shimon Peres, chairman of the Labor Party, warned last night that Israel would face one of the gravest developments in its history if the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khoumelni took power, in Iran and aligned that country with the new Arab bloc being formed by Iraq and Syria.
Addressing the Labor Party Bureau in Tel Aviv, Peres said Israel could not ignore the possibility that the militarily powerful, oil-rich Iran, under Khoumeini’s leadership, would line up with Iraq and Syria. He noted that Khoumeini spent many of his years of exile in Iraq and in fact may have been the matchmaker between Baghdad and Damascus which are now in the process of forming a military and political alliance.
Peres attacked the Likud government for giving away too much in the peace process. “The longer the talks take, the more the government gives in,” Peres said. “Had we been able to feel secure in the knowledge that this government stands firm, it would have been different, but the fact is that all it apposed at Ismailia it accepted in double dose at Camp David and It continues to lose points as time goes on,” Peres said.
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