PRESIDENT SHIMON PERES RECORDED A SPECIAL GREETING TO THE IRANIAN PEOPLE ON THE OCCASION OF THE PERSIAN NEW YEAR
President Shimon Peres this morning (Monday), 19.3.12, recorded a special interview, with Israel Radio’s Persian language service, for the citizens of Iran in which he wished them a happy Persian New Year, Nowruz. The President began the interview with the traditional Persian greeting Iranian-e gerami, dar harkoja ke hastid, novruzetan piruz bad (“Dear citizens of Iran, wherever you are, a Happy Noruz”). “I would like to wish the Iranian people a genuine and happy holiday which will fill their hearts. I wish they will have a true and not seeming holiday in which they can taste freedom, respect and human dignity,” the President added.
President Peres appealed directly to the Iranian people and said: “I call on the Iranian people. It is still not too late to change the corrupt regime and return to your glorious Persian heritage. The Iranian people have a brilliant heritage of culture and values, not bombs and missiles. Sometimes I ask myself how such a cultured people, with such a glorious history, allows such an extremist, blind and hate-filled group to shame its historic heritage. How could the people allow the regime to sow fear, steal people’s freedom and shake the younger generation that is seeking its way out of dictatorial Iran? Iran, which was once loved by so many countries around the world, is, today, causing the entire world to be against it.”
President Peres commented on the poverty in Iran and said, “When a child wakes up in the morning, anywhere in the world and in Iran as well, he must be allowed to have breakfast. The Iranian regime is investing all its money in the nuclear project and is abandoning its people to wallow in poverty and hunger. Enriched uranium cannot feed the hungry in Iran.”
President Peres appealed directly to his listeners and said, “The Iranian people need to raise their voice for an Iranian Iran. The entire world will help the people raise its voice for the restoration of an Iranian Iran that returns to itself and if not
– force will lead to a forceful response. It is in the hands of the Iranian people to prevent an external deterioration.”
At the end of the interview, President Peres recalled his visit to Iran during the time of the Shah, when the two countries enjoyed diplomatic relations.
The interview was conducted by veteran Israel Radio presenter Menashe Amir and will soon appear in English, on the President’s YouTube channeland on other social networks.
