Iran vows to retaliate if nuclear facilities attacked

Iran : Iran threatened yesterday to strike back at Israel or any other country that attacked its nuclear facilities.

Iran: Iran threatened yesterday to strike back at Israel or any other country that attacked its nuclear facilities.

US and Israeli officials accuse Iran of seeking to develop atomic bombs under cover of a civilian nuclear programme.

Iran denies the charges, saying it only intends to produce electricity from nuclear power plants.

"If Israel or any other country attacks any site in Iran, we know no limits to threaten their interests," said Deputy Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr .

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"That means anywhere in the world, within their borders or outside it," he said.

Israeli war planes destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981. Iran has stationed anti-aircraft batteries around its nuclear plants and built many of its facilities underground.

Iranian officials have also warned they can strike back at Israel with their medium-range Shahab-3 missile, which can also hit US military bases in the Gulf.

Zolqadr denied Iran was developing nuclear weapons, saying the Islamic state preferred to rely on a volunteer militia force, which he said numbered 10 million, to defend the country.

Earlier the commander addressed secondary school students at a conference entitled "The World Without America".

"The world without America is a world without oppression, without terror, without invasion, without massacre," he said. He added that an Iraq-style invasion of Iran was out of the question thanks to Iran's growing military might. - (Reuters)