Enemies will regret any attack on Iran: IRGC commander
TEHRAN — The enemies will bitterly regret any attack against Iran, Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Commander Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari said here on Saturday.
As a united nation with strong defense capabilities, Iran has become invincible and “definitely the outcome of any attack on Iran will be bitter and regretful for the enemies,” Jafari told reporters on the sidelines of the annual Defense Week military parade.
Although the enemy is technologically more advanced than Iran, especially in the area of air power, “we can neutralize its strength with our unique and special techniques,” he noted.
Iran will seriously respond to any “mindless” action of the enemies by identifying their weak points through its unique techniques, he added.
Iran’s defensive industry is self-sufficient adding that the country’s defensive plans are practicable, he said.
“Now we are able to share the technology of our modern weapons with other countries,” he stated.
Jafari also warned that if any country allows the enemies to use its territory as a launch pad for attacks on Iran, it will definitely be considered an ally of the enemy, and Iran will respond with its missiles.
Our response to any attack will be devastating: defense minister
TEHRAN – The recent wave of propaganda against Iran is just more psychological warfare and information operations, Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said here on Saturday.
“We do not feel threatened but we monitor everything very cleverly,” Najjar added.
However, he said if there will be any attack on Iran “we will respond overwhelmingly.”
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the military parade marking the defense week, the minister said the Iranian armed forces serve the security and stabilization of the region.
“Hit and run” attack against Iran impossible: Leader
TEHRAN – Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei warned on Saturday that it will be impossible for enemies to launch a “hit and run” military attack against Iran.
“Those who make threats should know that attack on Iran in the form of hit and run will not be possible and if any country invades Iran it will face its very serious consequences,” Khamenei told a meeting of national officials including the heads of the three braches of government.
The Leader said “these threats will cause more readiness by Iranian nation and government.”
The U.S. has threatened Iran with military attacks if it does not cease its nuclear program which is quite legal and under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The Supreme Leader said the ultimate goal of these threats is to make Iranian people and authorities “scared.”
The Leader also stated that “the Iranian nation and authorities will not let these threats find a way into their hearts” and they will prepare themselves in a variety of different ways.
Ayatollah Khamenei said the repetition of the enemy threats shows that the Western liberal democracy lacks any logic and wisdom.
In contrast to Iran’s spiritual and rational influence in the region and the world the Western liberal democracy uses the “language of threat” in the way an illiterate person behaves toward an intellectual person..
Iran promises missiles will fly if US attacks
By Tim Shipman in Washington
Iran has threatened to retaliate with missile attacks if Western forces launch raids against the Islamic state’s nuclear programme — putting on a defiant show of military force to back up the message.
The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, addressed a military parade in Teheran
The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, addressed a military parade in Teheran and mocked threats from the United States, while the head of the Revolutionary Guards said Iran would “pull the trigger” if attacked.
Their bellicose intervention came as officials in Washington warned that time was running out for the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, to “get a result” from diplomacy or hand the initiative to White House hawks who want military action.
Mr Ahmadinejad spoke out as he led a parade to mark Iran’s war with Iraq, which included a flypast by three Saegheh jet fighters and armoured vehicles, one of which bore the slogan “Death to America”.
In a message directed at Western diplomats, he told the crowds: “Those who think that by using such decayed tools as psychological warfare and economic sanctions, they can stop the Iranian nation’s progress are making a mistake.”
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The parade also featured medium-range ballistic missiles which are capable of hitting Israel or US bases in Iraq and the wider Gulf region.
Asked how Iran would respond if any country allowed its territory to be used as a base for an attack, Mohammad Ali Jafari, the head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, said: “You have seen the -missiles. Just pull the trigger and shoot.”
He added: “Our message to the enemies is: Do not do it. They will regret it, as they are regretting it in Iraq.”
Mr Ahmadinejad today arrives in New York for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly where the US, Britain, France and Germany are drawing up plans for new sanctions against Iran.
Diplomats are conscious that firm action is needed this week to bolster the position of Miss Rice, who wants to show that diplomacy can isolate Iran and constrain Teheran’s weapons programmes.
One official in Washington said: “Condi really needs to get a result to show other members of the administration that it’s working.”
He said that some officials believe the vice-president, Dick Cheney, has given her “just enough rope to hang herself” by pursuing the diplomatic route.
A state department source who wants the diplomacy to succeed, said that administration hawks had closely studied the international fallout from Israel’s clandestine raid on Syria the week before — which US officials say was targeted at nuclear materials sold by North Korea — as a guide to how military action against Iran would be received.
“Their attitude is: where was the fuss? Some of them think they would get away with it in Iran,” the source said.
UN Security Council members Russia and China have refused to back tougher action on Iran, so the Bush administration is assembling a diplomatic “coalition of the willing” — a phrase widely use before the war in Iraq — to set up US and European sanctions against the Iranian regime. These would punish banks and companies that deal with Iran.
A Western diplomat said: “The Americans are hugely frustrated that they can’t get any more from the Russians and Chinese.”
