Iran ‘to target’ any state...............
Iran ‘to target’ any state used to launch a strike
Agencies/Tehran
Iran will target any country used as a launch pad for attacks against its soil, the deputy Revolutionary Guards commander said, expanding Tehran’s range of threats in an increasingly volatile standoff with world powers over its nuclear ambitions.
Last week, Iran’s supreme clerical leader threatened reprisals for the West’s new ban on Iranian oil exports and the US defence secretary was quoted as saying Israel was likely to bomb Iran within months to stop it assembling nuclear weapons.
Although broadened and sharpened financial sanctions have begun to inflict serious economic pain in Iran, its oil minister asserted on Saturday it would make no nuclear retreat even if its crude oil exports ground to a halt.
Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian energy purposes. But its recent shift of uranium enrichment to a mountain bunker possibly impervious to conventional bombing, and refusal to negotiate peaceful guarantees for the programme or open up to UN nuclear inspectors, have thickened an atmosphere of brewing confrontation, raising fears for Gulf oil supplies.
“Any spot used by the enemy for hostile operations against Iran will be subjected to retaliatory aggression by our armed forces,” Hossein Salami, deputy head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, told the semi-official Fars news agency yesterday.
The Guards began two days of military manoeuvres in southern Iran on Saturday in another show of force for Iran’s adversaries associated with tensions over its disputed nuclear programme.
The US and Israel have not ruled out a military strike on Tehran if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear stalemate.
Salami did not identify which countries he meant as possible hosts for military action against it.
Iran has warned its response to any strike will be “painful”, threatening to target Israel and US bases in the Gulf, along with closing the Strait of Hormuz used by one third of the world’s seaborne oil traffic.
A military strike on Iran and Iran’s response would send oil prices soaring, which could seriously harm the global economy.
lHundreds of protesters demonstrated on Saturday in New York and pacifist groups took to the streets in dozens of other US and Canadian cities in a “Day of Mass Action” against a possible war with Iran.
About 500 protesters gathered in Manhattan’s Times Square and marched to the headquarters of the US mission to the UN and to the Israeli consulate.
“No war, no sanctions, no intervention, no assassinations,” read a banner leading the march.
“The actions of the Iranian government in no way justify a US war on Iran,” Debra Sweet, director of the organisation “The World Can’t Wait,” said at the New York march.
The protest joined efforts from a coalition of about 60 pacifist and human rights organisations.
A leaflet distributed at the New York demonstration said “in many ways, US war on Iran has already begun”, citing as examples “harsh economic sanctions” against Tehran, “killing Iranian scientists in car bombings” and that “US aircraft carriers are right off Iran’s shore”.
“I don’t know what (US President Barack) Obama will do but I do know what he has done, which is very hard sanctions that only will hurt ordinary people,” Sweet said.
Gulf Times
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=484915...
@ Mr Qatar. This situation is very different because Iran is simply not allowing ANY inspections. Why? Could it be because if they are creating nuclear weapons, it is impossible to hide?
@ Flying Ace. If it comes down to it, Iran will go exactly the same way as Iraq. They don't have the technology, the military might or the stomach for a fight with the USA and Israel.
You are assuming that Iran will have the capability to react and engage in a war. I do not believe they do. It is mere posturing ..
The Point is Will Israel and US try any kind of Adventure knowing that the Country they would be going into is not Afghanistan, Iran, Libya. It's Iran!
If US/Israel goes for an Air Strike into Iran, then it is a All out War, something Close to Cuban missile Crisis in the 1960s.
Is US and the Allies even ave credible Intelligence that Iran poses nuclear weapon or just Bluffing like they did in the case of Iraq....
Here i am not supporting iran but what i am saying is that War or attack is not the solution.. First america and united nation start shouting that iraq had nuclear weapons and iraq wellcome un team to inspect but they didnt find anythng but still america attacked on iraq and after killing thousand of innocents ppl for several years now they realised that there is no nuclear weapon.. Same is the case of iran..
Anyway i am not interested in these type of discussions especially politics.. So i quit..
@Mr Qatar - Then Iran ought to honour its obligations which it agreed to when it signed the NNPA.
If their program is for peaceful purposes, then why not allow the inspectors in? What have they got to hide?
Most of the US air raids are launched from Diego Garcia. Should be interesting to see how Iran targets that place :o)
@Supermanqatar - What like in 1981 you mean?
Barking dog will never bite....
@sajmarhab.
It's very simple. Iran signed up to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Israel didn't.
That is your answer.
And I think you'll find that of all the countries opposed to Iran's Nuclear program, maybe only 5-10% possess nuclear weapons. But let's not let facts spoil this debate right?
The countries that against Iran, 99 % of them possessing Nuclear Weapons, including ISRAEL, then on what base they can say to IRAN to stop Nuclear enrichment.
crazy world. especially crazy West..