IRAN:IRAN WILL hit Tel Aviv, US shipping in the Gulf and American interests around the world if it is attacked over its disputed nuclear activities, an aide to the country's supreme leader was quoted as saying yesterday.
"The first bullet fired by America at Iran will be followed by Iran burning down its vital interests around the globe," the students news agency ISNA quoted Ali Shirazi as saying in a speech to Revolutionary Guards.
The United States and its allies suspect Iran is trying to build nuclear bombs. Tehran says its programme is peaceful.
Leaders of the Group of Eight rich countries expressed serious concern at the proliferation risks posed by Irans nuclear programme. In a statement issued after G8 leaders met in Hokkaido, northern Japan, the grouping urged Tehran to suspend all enrichment-related activities.
"We also urge Iran to fully co-operate with the IAEA," the G8 said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy said earlier that the major world powers had decided to send European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana to Iran for talks on an incentives package they offered last month to induce Tehran to change its nuclear policy.
Mr Sarkozy did not say when Mr Solana would travel to Tehran. Iran formally replied on Friday to the offer by the United States, France, Britain, China, Russia and Germany.
France said Iran's response had ignored the world powers' demand for a suspension of uranium enrichment before talks on implementing the package - a condition rejected on Monday as "illegitimate" by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In Prague, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said there were ways that Iran might wish to talk with Mr Solana or others in order to get that suspension to take place.
"I did speak with Javier Solana yesterday. He is in contact with his Iranian counterpart and it's our great hope that the Iranians will avail themselves of this opportunity to get on the right side of the international community." Mr Shirazi's comments intensified a war of words that has raised fears of military confrontation and helped boost world oil prices to record highs in recent weeks.
"The Zionist regime is pressuring White House officials to attack Iran. If they commit such a stupidity, Tel Aviv and US shipping in the Persian Gulf will be Iran's first targets and they will be burned," Mr Shirazi was quoted as saying. Mr Shirazi, a mid-level cleric, is supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative to the Revolutionary Guards.
In Jerusalem, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, declined to comment on the threat to hit Tel Aviv, saying only: "Shirazi's words speak for themselves."
In April, Israel's infrastructure minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a former army general and defence minister, told Israeli media: "An Iranian attack will prompt a severe reaction from Israel, which will destroy the Iranian nation."
Tel Aviv is an Israeli coastal metropolis of about two million people. It was hit in 1991 by Scud missiles launched by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during during the first Gulf war. Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, on a visit to Jerusalem, told reporters a military assault on Iran would be a "catastrophe". Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz if it comes under attack. About 40 per cent of globally traded oil moves through the Gulf waterway.
- (Reuters)