Peres, the last of Israel’s founding fathers, spoke to the BBC’s Lyse Doucet just before his 90th birthday
Shimon Peres, who served twice as Israel’s prime minister and once as president, has died at the age of 93.

Mr Peres suffered a stroke two weeks ago. His condition had improved before a sudden deterioration on Tuesday.
His son Chemi led tributes to “one of the founding fathers of the state of Israel” who “worked tirelessly” for it.

Mr Peres was one of the last of a generation of Israeli politicians present at the new nation’s birth in 1948.
He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his role negotiating the Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians a year earlier, a prize he shared with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was later assassinated, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

He once said the Palestinians were Israel’s “closest neighbours” and might become its “closest friends”.

World leaders set to attend the funeral on Friday include UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French

President Francois Hollande, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Mr Peres will receive a state burial at a ceremony on Friday at Mount Herzel Cemetery in Jerusalem.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sent a letter of condolence to Mr Peres’ family “expressing his sorrow and sadness”.
“Peres was a partner in creating the peace of the brave with the late President Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Rabin, and has made intensive efforts to reach a long-lasting peace since the Oslo agreement and until the last breath,” he said in a statement.