Iran vows 'astonishing' retaliation to attacks
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-27 13:49

Iran will carry out an "astonishing" retaliation to any attack against the Islamic republic by Israel or the United States, Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned in comments published.

The Islamic republic also responded to Israeli allegations that it was closer to developing a nuclear weapon, saying the latest accusations were designed to shift attention away from Israel's own weapons and its "terror" against Palestinians.

Iranian members of the revolutionary guards march during a military parade. Iran will carry out an 'astonishing' retaliation to any attack against the Islamic republic by Israel or the United States, the Revolutionary Guards warned. [AFP/file]

"We will counter any stupid action by Israel and its master with firmness and in an astonishing way," Brigadier-General Mohammad-Ali Jafari was quoted as saying by the Shargh newspaper.

Jafari, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards' ground forces, said Iran now had to capacity to defeat any invader in the space of just weeks.

"We pushed the Baathist enemy from our country within one and a half years," he said, referring to the opening campaigns of the 1980-88 war with Iraq.

"With the experience and skills from that war and in the case of any invasion, the invaders will be defeated in less than one and a half months," Jafari said.

In separate comments carried by the student news agency ISNA, the chief of the Revolutionary Guards said he did not believe Israel or the United States had the courage to attack but asserted that his forces were nonetheless at the ready.

"Even though the US and Israel do not have the courage to invade the Iranian nation, the Revolutionary Guards are in very good state of readiness to response to threats," General Yahya Rahim Safavi said.

"The US can not bring security to the Middle East by pushing Iran aside. And if they plan conspiracies, the Iranian nation and its leadership will stand against expansionism with firmness," he said.

And a foreign ministry statement rejected calls from Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres for the world to take action against Iran's nuclear ambitions, seen by the US and Israel as a cover for weapons development.

"The unfounded claims of Israeli officials were made to deviate world attention from Israel's organised terror activities and efforts to further strengthen its nuclear power," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.

He noted that "Israel refuses to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and put its its nuclear activities under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), yet brazenly and maliciously tries to portray Iran's peaceful nuclear activities as a threat to the world".

"Israel's continued trampling of the rights of the Palestinian people on flimsy excuses cannot wipe out the roots of their struggle or weaken their resistance and they (the Palestinians) will eventually be vindicated," Asefi said.

In recent days US officials have hardened their tone against the Islamic republic, which US President George W. Bush has already lumped into an "axis of evil".

Last Monday Bush said he could not rule out using force if Tehran failed to rein in its nuclear plans, and US Vice President Dick Cheney said Iran was "right at the top of the list" of global trouble spots.

Cheney also warned that Israel might launch a pre-emptive strike on its own to shut down Iran's nuclear programme.

Since the downfall of the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Israel has come to regard the Islamic Republic as its number one enemy.

While Iran insists its nuclear activities are strictly peaceful, Britain, France and Germany are engaged in diplomatic efforts to secure long-term guarantees that the clerical regime will not seek the bomb.

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