A top Iranian officer warned on Saturday that Iran would react
with missile counterpunches in case the country was attacked, state
television reported.
"It is worldwide known that Iran has ballistic missiles with a
range of 2,000 km...We will never launch initiative attacks on any
country, but we will defend our country with all useful means if
attacked," Yahya Rahim Safavi, the commander-in-chief of the
Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, was quoted as saying.
Safavi's comments came as the Iranian nuclear dispute is
escalating into a looming crisis.
Iran on Jan. 10 resumed nuclear research work in defiance of
warnings of the European Union, which has been acting as a broker
of the Iranian nuclear issue since 2003.
Iran also turned down a Russian proposal to transfer its uranium
enrichment to Russia.
Under calls from the European trio of Britain, France and
Germany, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s board of
governors has decided to hold an emergency meeting on Feb. 2 to
vote for referring Iran's nuclear file to the U.N. Security
Council.
Iran vowed that it would never give in even to the U.N. Security
Council, threatening to resume uranium enrichment at the industrial
level if its case was referred.
Israel has recently said it would never accept an Iran equipped
with nuclear weapons while the United States repeatedly rejected to
rule out military attacks as the last resort. Both countries have
said they would launch preemptive attacks on Iran's nuclear
facilities.
Iran's upgraded Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile has an
alleged range of 2,000 km, which makes Tehran capable of striking
Israel or any other enemy target in the region.
(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2006)
