By Xinhua
Tehran : A top Iranian general said on Tuesday that any military attack against Iran will be hit back “in shortest possible time,” local Fars News Agency reported.
“In case the enemies intend to attack Iran, they will been countered by the powerful armed forces and Basij (militia) in shortest possible time,” Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior military advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, was quoted assaying.
Safavi made the remarks at a special ceremony in honor of his10-year service as commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.
Iran’s state media reported on Sept. 1 that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had appointed Mohammad Ali Jafari as the new head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Safavi also said that the United States is hated by Islamic countries and by the world because of its “bad and inappropriate performance all over the world.”
The Iranian general’s remarks came after French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner’s warning that the world should brace for a possible war over the Iranian crisis.
In an interview on the French television station LCI late on Sunday, Kouchner said: “We must prepare ourselves for the worst …(and) the worst is war.”
The United States has been seeking to impose tougher sanctions on Iran through the UN Security Council on the grounds that Tehran is developing a nuclear weapon program under the guise of a civilian-use program.
Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and voiced hopes for talks to defuse the nuclear standoff.
The United States has never ruled out military action against Iranian targets for Tehran’s suspicious nuclear program.