President Shimon Peres
President Shimon PeresIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Israel's President Shimon Peres has called on world leaders to encourage an Iranian grassroots revolt, possibly in a manner similar to that of the Arab Spring uprisings that have taken place elsewhere around the region.

The president's comments were made in response to a  claim by Iranian leaders that both the United States and Israel would soon fall to an Iranian military attack.


"We would all be happy if the Iranian regime were to fall from the tall and dangerous tree it has climbed,” Peres said Thursday in an interview on Army Radio. "Of course, we must also encourage the Iranian nation to return to itself,” he added.

According to Iran's state-run Press TV, Revolutionary Guard Brig.-Gen. Hossein Salami claimed “the Islamic Revolution has the upper hand over the Zionist regime.”

Salami spoke after Lebanon-based Hizbullah terrorist chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah admitted launching an Iranian-made drone into Israeli air space. Iran's Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi supported the move, saying it showed “the weakness of the Zionist regime's Iron Dome” anti-missile defense system.

The drone traveled nearly the length of Israel from north to south, over the Mediterranean, with an “escort” of Israeli F-16 fighter jets which shot it down over an uninhabited area in the northern Negev. Analysts have speculated that IDF computer experts jammed the drone's GPS system to redirect its flight pattern away from the Dimona nuclear reactor site.