Iran:Iran has accused the United States of fuelling sectarian tensions in the Middle East and warned that any US attack on Iran will be met by strikes against American targets around the world.
Writing in yesterday's New York Times, Iran's ambassador to the UN, Javad Zarif, said US claims about Iranian activity in Iraq were aimed at disguising the failure of American policy.
"The United States administration is - unfortunately - reaping the expected bitter fruits of its ill-conceived adventurism, taking the region and the world with it to the brink of further hostility.
"But rather than face these unpleasant facts, the United States administration is trying to sell an escalated version of the same failed policy. It does this by trying to make Iran its scapegoat and fabricating evidence of Iranian activities in Iraq," he wrote.
Mr Zarif said that US efforts to build an anti-Iranian regional coalition represented a return to the policies of the 1980s and 1990s that helped to build Saddam Hussein's power and create al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
He said that all the regional powers should put aside their differences and work with the Iraqi government to contain sectarian violence.
"The American administration can also contribute to ending the current nightmare and preventing future ones by recognizing that occupation and the threat or use of force are not merely impermissible under international law, but indeed imprudent in purely political calculations of national interest. As authoritative studies have repeatedly shown, no initiators of war in recent history have achieved the intended results; in fact, in almost all cases, those resorting to force have ultimately undermined their own security and stature," he wrote.
In Tehran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told air force commanders that any US attack on Iran would be a risky operation for Washington.
"Some people say that the US president is not prone to calculating the consequences of his actions but it is possible to bring this kind of person to wisdom. US policymakers and analysts know that the Iranian nation would not let an invasion go without a response. The enemy knows well that any invasion would be followed by a comprehensive reaction to the invaders and their interests all over the world," the ayatollah said.
Washington insists it wants to use diplomacy to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear programme, although President Bush has reinforced the US naval presence in the Persian Gulf.
"Khamenei from time to time makes these unprovoked statements and we would certainly hope they are not directed at the United States because President Bush has made it clear we have no intention of going to war with Iran," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the US National Security Council.