Iranian delegates walked out of an interfaith conference in Kazakhstan after Israeli President Shimon Peres took the podium to deliver a speech.

"We have come to listen to religious leaders… and Peres is not a religious leader." Iranian envoy Mehdi Mostafavi said after leaving the Wednesday morning opening ceremony, the Jerusalem Post reported.

JPost quoted another member of the Iranian delegation leaving the meeting as saying, "Israel won't attack us [Iran]; we're not afraid of Israel or the United States.”

"Your president plunders land and occupies, and we are not willing to hear him … Peres represents an abominable Zionist personality, and his place is not here [at the interfaith conference],"the unnamed Iranian official said.

Peres, who had not been among the original guests invited to take part in the two-day Congress of World and Traditional Religions in Astana, was later asked by Kazakh officials to attend the meeting as he was already in Kazakhstan on an official visit.

MJ/HGH