Israeli President Shimon Peres. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Israeli President Shimon Peres warned an audience of foreign ambassadors gathered on Tuesday to celebrate the upcoming Jewish New Year that “war always ends in disappointment” as conflict raged along the borders of the Jewish state.

“The big danger in the Middle East is not war. Even if it begins with fanfare, it always ends with disappointment,” Peres said, according to Israel’s Channel 2, pointing out that chemical weapons can cause much greater harm than conventional military options.

Peres also addressed possible reprisal attacks on Israel by Syria if the United States chooses  to strike the country in response to the use of chemical weapons by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

“If Syria attacks us we will overcome them and that is why I believe it won’t happen. We have enough of a deterrent, enough strength and defense. We have one of the best security infrastructures and one of the best militaries in the modern world,” he said.

It wasn’t all gloom and doom for the president. He noted with joy that the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority has been renewed, saying he “cannot think of happier news.”

Peres offered a stark assessment of the Syrian civil war.

“Assad has lost the right to be a leader by killing a hundred thousand people. He caused it. He wasn’t elected properly, it was never a real democracy but even in a democracy you don’t have the right to kill your own people. Assad will disappear one way or the other,” he said.

On awaited U.S. military action in Syria, Peres said, “War is a very serious business and I would suggest to every leader to think as much as they can before rather than afterwards. I admire President Obama’s attempt to examine every possibility to bring this horrible situation to an end.”

“None of us can ignore it, we do not have the right to. I believe it will reach an end because moral borders are not less important that physical borders. Physical borders can be crossed by missiles, moral ones cannot be crossed. You are either wrong or right,” Peres said.