WORLD / Middle East
Iran vows retaliation if Israel strikes
(AP)
Updated: 2006-11-13 08:35
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's military will retaliate swiftly and strongly if
Israel attacks any Iranian nuclear sites, the Foreign Ministry said
Sunday.
The warning came two days after Israel's deputy defense minister
suggested Israel might be forced to launch a military strike against
Iran's disputed nuclear program as "a last resort."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, parliament speaker Gholam
Ali Haddad Adel, right, and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, left,
listen to a speech, during a conference in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Nov. 12,
2006. Ahmadinejad on Sunday harshly criticized the United Nations
Security Council for its threats to impose sanctions on defiant Tehran
over its nuclear program. [AP]
"If the Zionist regime commits such stupidity, the response by the
Iranian military will be swift, strong and crushing," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini said. "Iran will take no longer than a
second to respond."
The comments by Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh were the
clearest yet from a high-ranking official of possible military action
against Iran. However, the Israeli government later said the comments did
not necessarily reflect its views or those of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Israel bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981 to destroy Saddam
Hussein's nuclear weapons program. While Israel neither acknowledges nor
denies possessing nuclear arms, it is thought to have about 100-200
nuclear warheads, according to a 2006 report by the Center for
Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International
Studies.
Hosseini downplayed the possibility of an Israeli attack. "The situation
and capability of the Zionist regime are far too small to threaten Iran,"
he said.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, again criticized the U.N.
Security Council over its efforts to impose sanctions on Iran because of
its nuclear program. Iran says its program is for peaceful energy
purposes, but the United States and other Western countries fear its a
cover for developing weapons.
"It is most embarrassing that the UN Security Council, which should be
the defender of nations' security and rights, threatens countries
pursuing nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes under the law," Ahmadinejad
said, addressing the general assembly of Asian Parliaments Association
for Peace in the capital, Tehran.
He accused the UN of applying a double standard, saying it was pursuing
Iran "while those countries, armed with nuclear weapons, deny the rights
of other countries to produce nuclear fuel and exploit it for peaceful
purposes."
The Iranian president also criticized the United Nations for what he
described as its lack of concern for the Palestinians. He condemned the
United States for vetoing a UN Security Council draft resolution that
criticized an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, including an
artillery barrage that killed 19 civilians last week.
"While this fake regime commits crimes, the UN has not taken a single
positive and operative step to restore the rights of the Palestinian
nation," he said.
Hosseini, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, also said Iran began installing
an additional 3,000 centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz
with the knowledge of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's
nuclear watchdog.
In October, Iran injected uranium gas into a second network of 164
centrifuges.
Injecting gas into centrifuges can either yield nuclear fuel or material
for a warhead, but does not represent a major technological breakthrough
and is unlikely to bring Iran within grasp of a weapon.
Iran produced a small batch of low-enriched uranium - suitable as nuclear
fuel but not weapons grade - in February, using its initial cascade of
164 centrifuges at Natanz.
Earlier this year, Tehran said it planned to install 3,000 centrifuges at
Natanz by year's end, but it would take 54,000 centrifuges to fuel a
reactor.
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