By DPA,
Berlin : An Iranian military commander Monday warned the United States that it would retaliate against any military attacks, the official news agency IRNA reported.
Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday that the US has an attack plan prepared against Iran, but that the prospects of an attack and of a nuclear-armed Iran were both very worrisome.
Mullen told NBC news that the “unintended consequences of either outcome” in an “incredibly unstable part of the world” was what he worried about the most.
The deputy head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, General Yadollah Javani, said Tehran would decisively retaliate against any US attack and firmly defend its territorial integrity and interests.
“The remarks by Mullen are another part of the US psychological war against Iran with the aim to intimidate Iran in the nuclear dispute negotiations,” Javani was quoted as saying by IRNA.
“However, our response to any attack would be firm, and the US is aware that the Persian Gulf is a strategic region and jeopardizing the region’s security would also jeopardize American interests,” the general added.
But Javani predicted that neither the US nor Israel would dare to attack Iran.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that the constant use of military rhetoric by the US showed that it was desperate.
“They either use the literature of threats or issue (UN) resolutions. Using the rhetoric of threat and sanctions and referring to weapons whenever there is a political problem shows that the Americans have reached a dead-end,” Ahmadinejad said in Tehran.
“How many (UN) resolutions have you issued? Four? You can issue 4,000 sanction resolutions, that only shows the reigning despair in the US administration and does not have any impact on our willingness (to continue the nuclear work),” the president said.
He said that one of his counterparts has once advised him to be careful of the US political and military power and recommended him to make concessions.
“All I told him was: no,” Ahmadinejad said.
Iran has several times warned that in case of attack it would block the strategic Gulf waterways, especially the Strait of Hormuz, which is a major route for global oil exports.
Iran also claimed last month that the Islamic state would use 100 military vessels to confront each US warship.
Iran has constantly rejected Western claims of working on a secret nuclear programme for military purposes.
World powers, including Russia, want Iran to temporarily stop its controversial uranium enrichment process as a sign of goodwill and to continue its civil nuclear projects only under international supervision.
Iran has said it is willing to negotiate but not to suspend its nuclear programmes, including the enrichment process, claiming its legitimate right as signatory of Non-Proliferation Treaty and member of the International Atomic Energy Agency.