Iranian warns Israel on nuclear site strike

International Herald Tribune | September 23 2004

UNITED NATIONS, New York Iran's foreign minister, Kamal Kharazi, has warned that it would react "most severely" to any Israeli strike against its nuclear facilities.

"Israel is always a threat not only against Iran, but all countries in the Middle East," Kharazi said after talks here with his British counterpart, Jack Straw. "Be sure that any action by Israel certainly will be reacted by us most severely."

Kharazi said he had had "a very good discussion" with Straw on the nuclear issue as well as relations between the two countries.

Britain, along with France and Germany, has been pressing Tehran to provide guarantees that its nuclear program would not be turned into a quest for nuclear weapons.

"I believe there are concerns on all sides," the Iranian minister said. "There are concerns on the European side, and we have to arrive to some conclusions that will be acceptable to both sides to overcome this impasse."

He said he believed that there were "ways and means how to make both sides happy," but added, "Nobody can deny our right, which is using nuclear technology for peaceful purposes."

Straw did not make a statement at the end of the talks.

Military officials in Israel said on Tuesday that it would receive nearly 5,000 smart bombs, including the 500 one-ton bombs that can destroy six-foot concrete walls. In 1981, Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor before it could begin operating. The purchase came after the UN atomic watchdog agency demanded last weekend that Iran freeze uranium enrichment and related activities, such as the building of centrifuges, within two months. Failure to do so could lead to the International Atomic Energy Agency passing Iran's nuclear file to the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions. Iran vowed on Tuesday to continue a nuclear program some suspect is aimed at developing weapons, even if it means ending cooperation with the UN agency. Iran maintains its uranium enrichment program is to generate electricity.

Israel's foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, said on Wednesday that Iran would never abandon plans to develop nuclear weapons and called for quick action by the UN Security Council "to put an end to this nightmare."

Shalom sidestepped the question of whether Israel would take military action against Iran if it continued to pursue its nuclear ambitions.

"They are trying to buy time, and the time has come to move the Iranian case to the Security Council in order to put an end to this nightmare," he told reporters after meeting Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, responding to a question about an Israeli attack on Iranian facilities similar to the Iraqi strike, said: "We're talking about diplomacy and political efforts to stop this movement on the part of the Iranians toward a nuclear weapon. "We're not talking about strikes. But every option always, of course, remains on the table."

---------------------------

E mail your comment on this article to newstips@propagandamatrix.com and have it posted here.