As Israel's general election approaches later this month, the New York Times has published a long interview with Shimon Peres, Israel's president and former prime minister, conducted over five months, Paul Owen writes. Peres predicts that if "economic sanctions, political pressure, negotiations" don't stop Tehran from gaining nuclear weapons, "then President Obama will use military power against Iran. I am sure of it. On Syria, Peres says Bashar al-Assad knows "it would be a suicidal act" to use chemical weapons as "the whole world would mobilise against him." But he adds that "it's obvious his days are numbered" and suggests: A situation in which, let's say, his palace comes under fire, could put him in an irrational state and lead him to act out of despair. Binyamin Netanyahu, the Likud prime minister, is expected to remain in office after the 22 January elections, but his Likud-Beiteinu coalition may have to team up with the relatively new ultra-nationalist party Jewish Home, which is on the rise. Jewish Home's leader Naftali Bennett this week told the Guardian the conflict with the Palestinians was "insoluble," he didn't intend to waste time "babbling" about it, and a Palestinian state was not going to be established. While not specifically referring to Bennett's views, Peres - who won the 1994 Nobel peace prize for his part in agreeing the Oslo accords with the Palestinians - says in the NYT interview that if the peace process is not pursued "the Palestinians will go back to terror. Knives, mines, suicide attacks. The silence that Israel has been enjoying over the last few years will not continue. And, Peres adds, in such a case "most of the world will support the Palestinians." Peres says he does not believe that Israeli settlers in the West Bank have ruined the chance of establishing a Palestinian state, saying: "The settlements today cover 2% of the entire area." Instead he predicts: The Palestinians have already accepted the Clinton parameters, which include leaving three blocs of Jewish settlements and exchanging other territory for them. In my opinion, many of the rest will leave of their own free will. But the issue of Israeli settlers in the West Bank may come to the fore if Bennett joins the next government; the Jewish Home leader wants Israel to annex the 60% of the West Bank that is under Israeli military control - the so-called Area C. Peres says he disagrees with Netanyahu that the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, is not a good negotiating partner. To my mind, he is an excellent partner. Our military people describe to me the extent to which the Palestinian forces are cooperating with us to combat terror," Peres says. Israeli President Shimon Peres addresses the heads of the Christian denominations in the Holy Land in Jerusalem on New Year's Eve. Photograph: Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images The Israeli president also talks about discussions he has had with Barack Obama about the Arab spring: President Obama asked me who I think is preventing democracy in the Middle East. I told him, "The husbands." The husband does not want his wife to have equal rights. Without equal rights, it will be impossible to save Egypt, because if women are not educated, the children are not educated. People who cannot read and write can't make a living. They are finished. And he explains his philosophy of peacemaking: "There are two things that cannot be made without closing your eyes - love and peace. If you try to make them with open eyes, you won't get anywhere.