Iran: Attack us and U.S. interests will 'burn'

BREAKING NEWS
updated 55 minutes ago
U.S., Czech Republic sign missile agreement
Countries agree defense shield will be based in the former Soviet territory
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The United States and the Czech Republic have signed an initial agreement to begin basing part of a U.S. missile shield in the former Soviet territory.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday in Prague that the shield is a good deal for the Czech Republic and for Poland, where the United States hopes to place another part of the system, though Warsaw hasn't yet agreed.

Rice said the next American president will have to decide whether and how to go forward with the missile defense system, but she made the case that the threat from Iran is growing and it is hard to imagine any administration giving up an effective deterrent.








Aide to top cleric warns that Tel Aviv, American ships will also be targeted
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25580681/
Reuters
updated 5:37 a.m. ET, Tues., July. 8, 2008
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran will hit Tel Aviv, U.S. shipping in the Gulf and American interests around the world if it is attacked over its disputed nuclear activities, an aide to Iran's Supreme Leader was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

"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 Zionist regime is pressuring White House officials to attack Iran. If they commit such a stupidity, Tel Aviv and U.S. shipping in the Persian Gulf will be Iran's first targets and they will be burned," Shirazi was quoted as saying.
Shirazi, a mid-level cleric, is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative to the Revolutionary Guards.

'Jihad and martyrdom'
"The Iranian nation will never accept bullying. The Iranian nation is a nation of believers which believes in jihad and martyrdom. No army in the world can confront it," he added.

In Jerusalem, Arye Mekel, Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman, declined to comment on Shirazi's remarks.

Israel, believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed power, has vowed to prevent Iran from acquiring an atomic bomb.

The United States says it wants to resolve the dispute by diplomacy but has not ruled out military action.

Iran says its nuclear activities are only to produce energy for civil use, not to make bombs.

Meanwhile, Iran started war games on Monday and its president rejected a demand by major powers that it stop enriching uranium as "illegitimate".

Missile units of the elite Revolutionary Guards' naval and air forces began war games, Iranian news agencies said, hours after the U.S. Navy said it had begun exercises in the Gulf.

Speculation about an attack on the world's fourth-biggest oil exporter over its nuclear program rose after a report last month said Israel had practiced such a strike. Fears of military confrontation helped send world oil prices to record highs.

Covert weapons program?
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday his country would not stop enriching uranium, work which Tehran says is aimed at generating power but which the West fears may be part of a covert nuclear weapons program.

It was Ahmadinejad's first comment on the dispute since Iran delivered its response on Friday to a package of incentives offered by world powers seeking to curb its nuclear activities. Details of the response were not made public.

"They offer to hold talks but at the same time they threaten us and say we should accept their illegitimate demand to halt (enrichment work)," Ahmadinejad told reporters in Malaysia, where he was attending a summit of eight developing countries.

"They want us to abandon our right (to nuclear technology)," the president said.

'New environment'
By contrast, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki spoke during the weekend of a "new environment" for diplomacy over Iran's nuclear program.

The United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany demand that Iran suspend its enrichment work before formal talks can start on their revised package of incentives, which includes help to develop a civilian nuclear program.

Tehran has repeatedly refused to stop producing enriched uranium, which can be used as fuel for power plants, or, if refined much more, can provide material for nuclear weapons.

The offer of trade and other incentives proposed by the world powers was presented last month by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.

Iran has put forward its own bundle of proposals aimed at resolving the dispute and has said it was encouraged by common points between the two separate packages.

So far the Iranian government's formal response to the latest offer has not been made public and there have been mixed signals in statements by its senior officials.