Iran Threatens Israel If U.S. Attacks

Iran Threatens Israel if U.S. Attacks

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...050200760.html

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
The Associated Press
Tuesday, May 2, 2006; 2:01 PM

TEHRAN, Iran -- A top Revolutionary Guards commander said Tuesday that Israel would be Iran's first retaliatory target if attacked by the United States.

Gen. Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghani also said Israel was not prepared to go war against Iran. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly spoken out against Israel and threatened to wipe it "off the map."

"We have announced that whenever America does make any mischief, the first place we target will be Israel," the semiofficial Iranian Student News Agency quoted Dehghani as saying.

"We will definitely resist ... U.S. B-52 (bombers)."

President Bush has said a military option remained on the table if Iran did not agree to international demands for it to stop enriching uranium. However, he also has said Washington wanted to solve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program through diplomacy.

Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres called on Iran to scrap its nuclear program and warned: "Remember that Israel is exceptionally strong and knows how to defend itself."

Dehghani, who served as a spokesman during large-scale Revolutionary Guards war games last month, said the exercises were held ahead of schedule to send a message to the United States and its allies over Tehran's nuclear activities.

"We were due to organize the maneuvers in May but due to timing conditions and issues related to (our) nuclear energy and upon the recommendation of Mr. (Ali) Larijani (Iran's top nuclear negotiator), it was held 40 days sooner than planned," he said.

Friday marked the deadline set by the U.N. Security Council for Iran to freeze its uranium enrichment program. Council members are now considering next steps, which could include punishing sanctions, although Russia and China oppose that step.

Israel's military chief said in comments published Tuesday that if Iran does obtain nuclear capability, it will constitute a threat to Israel's existence. When asked if the world can, militarily, stop Iran's nuclear program, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz told the Maariv newspaper: "The answer is yes."

Asked whether Israel would be involved in such a military operation, Halutz said, "We are part of the world."

Iranian army retracts Israel strike threat
AFP


Iran's top army brass has retracted a threat made earlier this week that the Islamic republic would target Israel if it came under US attack over its nuclear programme.

According to General Alireza Afshar, a deputy chief of general staff in charge of propaganda, the warning made last week by a lower-ranking spokesman carries "no value in the eyes of the Iranian armed forces".

On Tuesday a spokesman for Iranian war games held in April, Rear Admiral Mohammad Ebrahim Dehqani, told the ISNA news agency that "if America gets up to mischief, Israel will be our first target to hit".

But Afshar said "his comments only represent his personal point of view."

Tehran has been under international pressure to suspend its nuclear activities, which it insists are for civilian energy purposes but which some Western countries fear are aimed at manufacturing an atomic bomb.

US and European officials are pushing for a tough, binding UN resolution for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, which makes the fuel for civilian reactors but what can also be the explosive core of bombs.