Iran told Western powers today that they would regret launching any attack over Tehran's nuclear activities and it rolled out a display of missiles and other hardware that underscored its warning.
"Our message to the enemies is: Do not do it," the head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said, speaking to reporters less than a week after France's foreign minister publicly raised the prospect of war.
An Iranian Zelzal 1 missile during a military parade today
"They will regret it, as they are regretting it in Iraq," Mr Jafari added, speaking on the sidelines of an annual military parade.
The Islamic Republic put on show medium-range missiles it has previously said could reach Israel and US bases in the Gulf at the parade marking the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq conflict.
Iran is embroiled in a deepening standoff with the West over its atomic ambitions, which the United States suspects is aimed at making bombs but which Tehran says is solely for generating electricity.
Washington has said it wants a diplomatic resolution to the dispute but has not ruled out military action if that fails.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner last Sunday raised the spectre of war, but has since backed away from the comment.
Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, has threatened to hit back at regional US interests if attacked.
Mr Jafari's words of defiance came a day after major powers, meeting in Washington, said they had "serious and constructive" talks about new UN Security Council sanctions aimed at trying to force Iran to halt its sensitive nuclear programme.
The officials of the five permanent Security Council members and Germany said they will keep pursuing a "dual track" approach to Iran - trying to persuade it to abandon such activities via negotiations while considering new sanctions.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, addressing the parade, made clear Tehran would not bow to Western pressure.
"Those who think, that by using such decayed tools as psychological warfare and economic sanctions, they can stop the Iranian nation's progress are making a mistake," he said.
The Islamic Republic showed among its weaponry a type of missile it has said has a range of 2,000 km enabling it to hit Israel and US bases in the region.
Western military experts say Iranian forces would be no match for US military technology but that they could still create havoc in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, through which a large volume of the world's traded oil passes.
Mr Jafari admitted Western powers enjoyed air superiority but suggested Iran would be able to outwit them. Asked how Iran would respond if any country allowed its territory to be used as a base for an attack, he said: "You have seen the missiles - just pull the trigger and shoot."