President Shimon Peres is emerging as a key player in U.S. President Barack Obama’s announcement last week that he is scrapping a defense shield missile system in Poland.

The Hebrew-language newspaper Maariv suggested that Peres convinced Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to swing a deal by which the United States would scrap the system and Moscow would back stiffer economic sanctions against Iran. However, many analysts think that President Obama played into Russia’s hands and sold out both Israel and Europe.