By IANS,
Tehran : Iran Tuesday ridiculed Western threats of imposing tough sanctions if the country refuses to give a positive response to the new package announced by the world powers, official IRNA news agency reported.
“British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is not in a position to dictate his own mindset to the European community,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said referring to the statement made by Brown Monday that if Iran refuses to respond to the new economic packages announced by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.
“If they (the Western countries) manage to take any actions against Iran, the Iranian officials would respond to them in kind,” Hosseini said while speaking at the 18th International Conference on Persian Gulf in Tehran Tuesday.
On possible US attack on Iran, the spokesman said based on existing realities in the Persian Gulf region the US is not in a position to make such an action.
“Six years after invasion of Iraq, the US try to get rid of Iraq’s quagmire and in Afghanistan they failed to attain their goals,” Hosseini said.
If the US commits any wrong mistakes, of course, Iran will give a proper response, Hosseini said.
He, however, underlined that Iran’s principles are based on “deterrent policy and forging ties with other countries”.
On Saturday, EU’s top diplomat Javier Solana offered Iran an adjusted package of economic benefits designed to persuade the Islamic country to curb its controversial nuclear programme, and said Iran should stop enrichment during negotiations to implement the offer. But, Iran rejected the offer and insisted that it would continue its enrichment programme. “We have repeatedly said that enrichment is our red line and we should enjoy this technology. The work will be continued,” deputy foreign minister Alireza Sheikhattar told reporters Tuesday. “We will give our answer as soon as possible. But we do not know exactly when it will be,” the Iranian official said.