Israel’s Shimon Peres rushed to hospital with chest pains

JERUSALEM – Israel’s former President Shimon Peres was rushed to hospital Sunday after experiencing chest pains, just a week after suffering a mild heart attack.

The 92-year-old statesman had been discharged from hospital on Tuesday last week.

A spokeswoman for Peres says medics treated him at his home and detected a “light irregular heart rate” after conducting an EKG test.

Peres won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 following the signing of 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 completed his seven year term as president in 2014 and remains in the public eye. He is still active through his non-governmental Peres Center for Peace, which promotes coexistence between Arabs and Jews and peace and development in the Middle East.

Peres has filled nearly every position in Israeli public life since he became the director general of the Defence Ministry at the age of 29 and spearheaded the development of Israel’s nuclear program.

A protégé of the country’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, Peres was first elected to parliament in 1959.

He has since held every major Cabinet post — including defence, finance and foreign affairs — and served three brief stints as prime minister in 1977, 1984 and 1995.