Israeli President Shimon Peres speaking at Sde Boker on the 40th anniversary of David Ben Gurion's death, November 10, 2013. Photo: Mark Neiman / GPO.

JNS.org – “We don’t consider Iran as an enemy,” Israeli President Shimon Peres told CNN‘s Richard Quest on Sunday at the Globes Israel Business Conference in Tel Aviv.

Asked whether he would be willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Peres replied, “Why not? I don’t have enemies.”

“It’s not a matter of a person but of a policy,” Peres said. “The [goal] is to convert enemies into friends.”

In August, Rouhani reportedly said of Israel, “After all, in our region there has been a wound for years on the body of the Muslim world under the shadow of the occupation of the holy land of Palestine and the beloved al-Quds (Jerusalem).”