Iran Says "Israeli" Attack "Impossible"

Source: Alalam.ir, 21-06-2008

TEHRAN--Iran considers an attack by ‘Israel' as "impossible" after US media reported military exercises by the occupying regime were a possible practice for a strike against Tehran.

Government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said ‘Israel's' "impudence and audacity to have an aggression against our national interest and integrity is an impossible action".

The New York Times cited US officials as saying Friday that a major military exercise carried out by the Zionist regime earlier this month seemed to be a practice for any potential strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.

But Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said in his Friday prayers sermon in Tehran that Iran would deal a "strong blow" to ‘Israel' if it resorted to force.

"If enemies especially ‘Israelis' and their supporters in the United States would want to use a language of force, they should rest assured that they will receive a strong blow in the mouth."

Meanwhile, the head of the UN nuclear agency said he would resign if there was a military strike on Iran, warning that any such attack would turn the region into a "fireball".

"If a military strike is carried out against Iran ... it would make me unable to continue my work," Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed El-Baradei told Al Arabiya television in an interview.

"A military strike, in my opinion, would be worse than anything possible. It would turn the region into a fireball," he said.

El-Baradei emphasized that any attack would only make the Islamic Republic more determined to obtain nuclear power.

"If you do a military strike, it will mean that Iran, if it is not already making nuclear weapons, will launch a crash course to build nuclear weapons with the blessing of all Iranians, even those in the West."

Russia's UN envoy, Vitaly Churkin, also said threatening Iran with military action could undermine newfound momentum in the drive by six world powers to resolve the dispute over the country's nuclear program.

Russia's foreign minister said there is no proof Iran is developing nuclear weapons and warned unilateral action against the country risks repeating the mistakes of the invasion of Iraq.

"I hope the actual actions would be based on international law,'' Lavrov said. "And international law clearly protects Iran's and anyone else's territorial integrity.''

Lavrov said Russia had asked both the United States and ‘Israel' to provide factual information to back their baseless claims that Iran was working to build atomic weapons.

"So far we have seen none, and the same conclusion was made by the International Atomic Energy Agency,'' he said.

"The same conclusion has been made by the International Atomic Energy Agency," Lavrov added.