Iranian representatives have staged a walkout during President Shimon Peres's keynote address at the Congress of World and Traditional Religions in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday, refusing to return as long as the Israeli leader spoke. "We have come to listen to religious leaders and Peres is not a religious leader." Iranian delegation member Mehdi Mostafavi told the 'Jerusalem Post'.
Peres was not originally scheduled to attend the conference, but since he was in Kazakhstan he was invited as a guest of honor by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. When asked if he would speak to the attending Israeli chief rabbis or any of the American rabbis present, Mostafavi, an adviser to Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said: "We'll see." Another member of the Iranian delegation told Israeli journalists that "Israel won't attack us [Iran]; we're not afraid of Israel or the United States. Your president is a stealer of lands and a conqueror, and we're not willing to hear him," the delegate continued. "Peres represents an abominable Zionist personality, and his place is not here.”
On Monday, Iran recalled its ambassador to Azerbaijan for consultations, a day after President Peres visited the country. According to the Iranian news agency INSA, the envoy was recalled due to both Peres' visit and unspecified "threats" it said Israel's ambassador in Baku had voiced against Iran.
In his speech to the inter-faith conference, Peres called on King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who instigated the Arab peace initiative, to meet in Jerusalem or in Riyadh, or to travel to Kazakhstan, where – together with other Arab leaders – he could advance the Israeli-Arab peace process. "We are aware of the big change which has occurred in the positions of a majority of Arab countries toward peace with Israel, a transition from the ‘three no's of Khartoum – no negotiation, no recognition, no peace – to the ‘three yeses’ of the Saudi initiative," Peres said.
