Vereinigung der Iranischen(Konstitutionalisten) Monarchisten

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Reschn( Do.)7 Ordibehscht 2565 ,27April 2006

Iran threatens to strike US interests if attacked

By Alireza Ronaghi

Iran vowed on Wednesday to hit U.S. interests worldwide if it is attacked by the United States, which is keeping military options open in case diplomacy fails to curb Tehran's nuclear program.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the threat two days before the U.N. nuclear watchdog reports on whether Iran is meeting Security Council demands to halt uranium enrichment.

Tehran says it will not stop enrichment, which it insists is purely for civilian purposes and not part of what the United States says is a clandestine effort to make atomic bombs.

"The Americans should know that if they assault Iran their interests will be harmed anywhere in the world that is possible," Khamenei was quoted as saying by state television.

"The Iranian nation will respond to any blow with double the intensity," he added.

The United States, backed by Britain and France, has been pushing for sanctions if, as it expects, the International Atomic Energy Agency reports that Iran has flouted U.N. demands.

But Russia and China, the U.N. Security Council's other two veto-holding permanent members, oppose any such embargo.

Iran's nuclear energy head, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, held talks with IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei in Vienna on Wednesday but the meeting looked unlikely to alter decisively the IAEA report due to be submitted to the Security Council by Friday.

"Whatever he tells us at this late stage, there would be no time for inspectors to check and verify it before the report comes out," said a Vienna-based diplomat, who asked not to be named.

ElBaradei visited Tehran this month but his proposal that Iran "pause" enrichment was rebuffed, diplomats have said.

"INTRANSIGENCE"

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw sought to enlist China's backing on Wednesday, saying Beijing should use its growing diplomatic muscle to solve disputes with international partners.

"China's support for this goal, as a permanent member of the Security Council, has been valuable already and will be increasingly crucial in securing international consensus in the face of Iran's intransigence," Straw said in London.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday it was time the Security Council drafted a Chapter 7 resolution.

This would be binding under international law and could lead to sanctions or even military intervention, although another resolution would be required to specify either step.

In response to the U.S. refusal to rule out military action, Iran has warned Washington that its forces in the region are vulnerable. Iran's wargames in the Gulf this month were also widely seen as a veiled threat to a vital oil shipping route.

"The security of the Persian Gulf is very well tied up to the world's economic affairs and it would be quite natural for Iran not to sit idle vis-a-vis any military adventure," Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Broujerdi told reporters in London.

Iran said on Tuesday it would suspend relations with the IAEA if sanctions were imposed. Diplomats said this could mean withdrawing from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

RECONSIDERING RELATIONS

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday reiterated his view that Iran could review its NPT and IAEA commitments if it saw no dividends from abiding by international protocols.

"We hope they fulfill their duties and make it unnecessary for the Islamic Republic of Iran to reconsider its relations with them," Ahmadinejad said.

Although Iran says it bases its nuclear policy on the NPT, it pulled out of the treaty's Additional Protocol, which allows snap inspections of atomic facilities, in February after the IAEA referred its nuclear file to the Security Council.

Iran often complains it does not benefit from the NPT's entitlement to shared technology, but Western diplomats say it must prove its goals are peaceful to qualify for this.

The IAEA has said that after three years of investigation it still cannot confirm that Iran's aims are entirely peaceful, although it has found no hard proof of a military program.

The agency points to gaps in its information, such as the status of Iran's research into P-2 centrifuges that can enrich uranium faster than the P-1 units it now operates.

(Additional reporting by Mark Heinrich in Vienna and Katherine Baldwin in London)