Iran threatens "destructive" response to Israel attack
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vowed to "wipe Israel off the map"
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Sunday, 12, Nov 2006 08:13
Iran will use "destructive" means of retaliation if Israel uses force to destroy its nuclear reactors, a government ministry spokesperson said today.
The Islamic middle eastern country's foreign ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, gave the warning in response to comments by Israeli deputy prime minister made on Friday.
Mr Sneh said that Israel viewed military action as a "last resort" if it feared that the development of nuclear technology by Iran meant Israel faced a heightened risk of nuclear attack.
Iran has repeatedly denied accusations from western nations that it intends to use its currently fast-paced nuclear development programme to prepare nuclear weapons. It insists that its nuclear reactors are solely being used for energy purposes.
"Israel does not have the means and the capability to dare threaten Iran. if it commits such a stupidity the Islamic republic and its defenders will give a destructive response within a second," Mr Hosseini was quoted as saying by the Agence France-Presse news agency.
Iran has preferred in the past to threaten political action by closing the Straits of Hormuz, a vital infrastructure bottleneck vital to the supply of oil from Iran in the region, if the UN imposes sanctions over the nuclear issue.
Relations with Israel are more directly strained, however. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has vowed to "wipe Israel off the map" while Israel has been known to act against nuclear reactors in the region before, against Saddam Hussein in the early 1980s.