A top Iranian general has announced that an Israeli attack on Iran would result in the “complete annihilation of Israel from the pages of history.”
Brigadier General Massoud Jazaeri, the deputy cultural and press defence secretary of the Iranian Armed Forces, told the Arabic network of the Islamic Republic broadcaster Al-Alem today: “If Iran’s nuclear centres are threatened, the Dimona development of the occupying Israeli regime will be the most accessible target for Iran.”
Jazaeri’s statement comes as a reaction to Israel’s ever-louder musings on a military attack against Iran. Several Israeli officials including President Shimon Peres have stated in the past week that a military attack against Iran is close at hand.
Yesterday, Israel toned down its language, with Defence Minister Ehud Barak saying the decision to attack Iran has not been finalized and Israel does not want a war.
Iran’s Jazaeri went on to say that the U.S. or any other country may “commence a war, but they will certainly not be the ones that end it. Iran has the ability to manage any military aggression, and many analysts have said that such an incident would turn into a global occurrence.”
Jazaeri added: “We hope that war does not occur in any part of the world, but unfortunately the people of the world have to deal with leaders such as the Americans, the British and the Zionists, and due to this, the threat of war at any given time is constantly present.”
He stressed that Iran has many ways of responding to military aggression, which “are not limited to the region and will be used at appropriate times.”
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s Supreme Leader have also said that any aggression against Iran will result in a war beyond its borders.
Iranian authorities insist that the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, has been biased in his latest report and is being used as a “political tool” by Iran’s enemies to rally opinion against it.
While Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, the IAEA chief’s latest report indicates the agency cannot be certain that Iranian nuclear program has no military aspect.
