Peres hopes Obama doesn’t talk to Iran right away

US president-elect Barack Obama should put aside plans to hold high-level talks with Iran until the Islamic republic’s elections, Israeli President Shimon Peres said in remarks published Friday.

“I hope that it won’t be done before the elections (in Iran) because it may affect the results of the elections,” Peres told Japan’s Kyodo News in an interview conducted in Jerusalem.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly called for Israel to be wiped off the map and denied the Holocaust, is expected to seek another term in June 12 elections.

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Ahmadinejad has provoked international isolation and is widely blamed for rampant inflation.

Obama, who takes office on January 20, has said he wants to hold talks with Iran and end a 30-year standoff between the United States and Iran — which switched from close US ally to arch-foe after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Obama’s position on Iran came under fire during the presidential campaign from former rival Hillary Clinton, whom he has chosen to be secretary of state.