Israel's Peres calls Iranian leader a "disgrace"

By Matt Spetalnick

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Israeli President Shimon Peres called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a danger and a disgrace on Wednesday, rebuking the Iranian president for his vitriolic condemnation of Israel and Zionism at the United Nations.

Taking the podium a day after Ahmadinejad's speech blaming "Zionist murderers" for everything from the Wall Street crisis to Russia's invasion of Georgia, Peres said: "His appearance here is already a shame."

This week's annual General Assembly gathering of world leaders was the latest setting for a long-running war of words between Israel and Iran as Tehran presses ahead with its nuclear program in defiance of U.N. sanctions.

Ahmadinejad, who has said in the past that Israel should be wiped off the map, struck first on Tuesday, railing against the Jewish state and its chief ally, the United States.

The Anti-Defamation League and U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, among others, swiftly denounced Ahmadinejad's accusations of Zionist control of world finance as anti-Semitic, echoing the libel that blamed a global Jewish conspiracy for the world's troubles.

"The Iranian people are not our enemies," Peres said. "Their leader is a danger to his own people, to the region, to the world ... He's a disgrace to this house."

Peres, who has called Iran's nuclear program an "existential threat" to Israel, urged further U.N. action against Tehran, already under three rounds of sanctions.

"We are able to defend ourselves. We do not intend to change this capacity," he said.

Israel, like the United States, has not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear standoff. The West and Israel accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons. Iran insists it only wants civilian nuclear energy.

Israel is widely believed to have assembled the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.

Asked why world leaders had not be more outspoken in criticizing Ahmadinejad's remarks to the assembly, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said they were all "a bit tired" of denouncing the Iranian leader's speeches.

But Kouchner added, "I do regret and denounce and condemn the way it has been done and the words he used ... especially on (the) anti-Semitic side."

PEACE DEAL WILL TAKE LONGER

In his own speech, Peres also cast further doubt on chances for a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians by the end of the year, a goal viewed with skepticism since U.S. President George W. Bush announced it at a peace conference in November.

"We tried to conclude those negotiations in this year," Peres said. "It will take apparently a longer period of time. I believe it can be accomplished in spite of it within the next year."