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Iran Warns Israel Against Striking Nuclear Plants
Reuters, Arab News
WASHINGTON, 29 September 2003 — Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, denying his country has “any program to produce weapons of mass destruction,” warned Israel that Iran would respond to any strike on its nuclear facilities.
In an interview aired yesterday on ABC’s “This Week,” Kharrazi said the possibility of an Israeli military strike on its nuclear program was “a threat, no question.”
Israel has warned that Iran’s nuclear program posed a threat to the world and was reportedly considering such a strike if Iran is pursuing a nuclear option.
Kharrazi said: “Israel knows if it commits such an action, it would be reacted.” He declined to be more specific, saying simply “there will be a response” if Israel launched such a strike.
Iran faces mounting pressure to prove it is not developing nuclear weapons. Diplomats in Vienna last week said the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, had discovered traces of weapons-grade enriched uranium at a second site in Iran.
The IAEA has given Tehran until Oct. 31 to prove it does not have a secret atomic arms program or be reported to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions.
On Saturday, US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded Tehran give up any ambitions to build nuclear weapons.
Early last week, Iran paraded six of its newly deployed medium-ranged missiles, which military analysts say could reach Israel or US bases in the Gulf.
Iran insists its nuclear scientists are not working on a weapons program but are trying to meet the country’s soaring electricity demand.
“Certainly, we don’t have any program to produce weapons of mass destruction, that is for sure,” Kharrazi said in the interview taped on Saturday evening.
Iran is willing to sign a new inspection protocol with the IAEA, but only if that makes clear “we can continue with enrichment facilities to produce fuel needed for our power plants,” he said.
Earlier, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters during a weekly press conference yesterday that Iran will not give up its nuclear program and will continue enriching uranium.
“Relinquishing peaceful nuclear technology or enriching uranium is not a subject Iran can compromise on,” he said.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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