LOC21:51
18:51 GMT
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 20 (KUNA) -- Israeli President Shimon Peres on Monday
spoke in conciliatory tone to Syria and Iran, saying Israel is ready to enter
direct negotiations with Syria "immediately" and that the Middle East has
"enough room" for friendship.
Peres claimed in a speech in the General Assembly Summit on the MDGs that
opened here today that the "territorial dispute with Lebanon has ended, and
acknowledged so by the UN," and stressed that Israel is "ready to enter in
direct negotiations with Syria immediately".
Israel is still occupying the Lebanese Shebaa farms and other territories
in southern Lebanon.
He added that Israel entered direct negotiations with the Palestinians to
realize the two-state solution, "and I believe that we shall succeed".
On Iran, he said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently declared
that "there's no future for Israel in the Middle East. I believe that the
Middle East has room for every person, every nation, every religion ... There
is enough room for friendship in the Middle East".
Addressing the High-Level gathering, Peres said the way to cut poverty in
half by the target date of 2015 is to invest in science, arguing that today,
science, creativity and knowledge replaced land as the source of wealth. Land
can be conquered. Not science. Science is borderless".
He said "scientists can enable the land produce more food. We developed an
agriculture based on science," offering to share the know-how with many
countries, through the UN or bilaterally, even with countries that don't have
diplomatic relations with his country.
He concluded urging the gathering to harness science and technology and to
fight terror for "a hungry world will never be peaceful. A terrorized world
will never be governable". (end)
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