Iran vows missile retaliation to any attack

"If we come under a military attack, we will respond with our very effective missile defence," Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guard, told state television.

Western states suspect Iran of secretly aiming to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran insists its nuclear facilities are intended to produce only electricity.

The United States and Israel have said they would prefer to solve the stand-off through diplomacy but have not ruled out a military strike.

Military experts reckon the Revolutionary Guard's Shahab-3 missiles have a range of some 2,000 km, meaning Israel, U.S. bases in the Gulf and foreign troops in Iraq lie within their range.

Safavi repeated Tehran's allegations that Britain and the United States are arming rebels in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, which has most of Iran's abundant oil reserves.

"Occupying forces in Iraq, particularly those in the south, provide Iranian agents with material for bombing," he said. "British and U.S. intelligence services should avoid interfering in our affairs."

Bombs ripped through a bank and government building in Khuzestan city of Ahvaz on Tuesday, killing eight people.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran was willing to work with Britain to put an end to the violence.

"Iran's security officials have said they are ready to hand over to British officials the documents related to the previous and recent incidents in Ahvaz," Mottaki told a news conference.

"That would be done soon and we hope that, by means of constant follow-ups, we reach tangible results that could prevent such events from happening again," he said.

A group fighting for the independence of Iran's Arab minority claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attacks but the claim could not be verified.

Defence analysts say Iranian ballistic missiles owe much to North Korean and Russian know-how.

"Iran produces its own ballistic missiles and does not draw on any foreign assistance for technology," Safavi said.

The Revolutionary Guard is a parallel military answerable directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Source

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.