President Shimon Peres, speaking at an interfaith conference in Kazakhstan, challenged Saudi Arabian King Abdullah to visit Jerusalem, which Muslims claim as their third holiest city. As the president spoke, the Iranian delegation walked out. Its representative explained, “Peres represents an abominable Zionist personality, and his place is not here.”

The call to the Saudi king came one month after U.S. President Barack Obama, in his Cairo speech to the Muslim world, urged the Arab world to fly the Israeli flag, allow Israel’s El Al airplanes to fly over their skies and recognize Jerusalem as the home of three faiths.