Buenos Aires - Oil wealth has clouded the vision of leaders like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said Israeli President Shimon Peres in comments published Wednesday by Argentine newspaper Critica. "There are similarities between Ahmadinejad and Chavez because their thoughts are both clouded by oil," said Peres. That blindness has led both into political madness, he said.
Peres also predicted that both presidents will soon fall from power.
"Their own people are tired of these rulers. They are both only fleeting phenomena," he said while speaking at a conference Tuesday.
Iran and Venezuela have established close ties. Peres, in his speech, renewed complaints that Iran wants to destroy Israel and rule the Middle East. He said Iran's efforts to create a nuclear programme will eventually require intervention by the US or Russia.
"The Iranians maintain that they would not build any nuclear bombs, so why do they need nuclear-capable rockets?" Peres asked.
During Peres' two-day stay in Argentina, he visited the Amia Jewish culture centre, where 85 people died in a 1994 bomb blast. Israel and Argentina have accused current Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi of responsibility for the attack.
