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Bushehr nuclear power plant in Bushehr, Iran, 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) southwest of Tehran. (AP file)
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| By Associated Press January 26, 2006 |
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Were Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, Iran would respond so strongly that it would put the Jewish state into "an eternal coma" like Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's, the Iranian defense minister said Wednesday.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has said his country would not accept Iran's acquiring nuclear weapons under any circumstances. He stopped short of threatening a military strike against Iran - as Israel destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 - but he said Israel was preparing for the possible failure of diplomatic negotiations with Iran.
A newscaster on Iranian state television read out a response from Iran's minister of defense, Gen. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, on Wednesday.
"Zionists should know that if they do anything evil against Iran, the response of Iran's armed forces will be so firm that it will send them into eternal coma, like Sharon," Najjar said.
The Israeli prime minister suffered a massive stroke on Jan. 4 and has been in a coma ever since. His doctors said he has responded to pain stimulus, but has shown no signs of waking up.
Najjar said the United States and Israel have been trying to frighten Iran, but neither country would dare attack to Iran.
Israel views Iran as its biggest threat and has joined the United States in accusing the Islamic republic of trying to produce a nuclear bomb.
Iran denies the allegation and says the sole aim of its nuclear program is to generate electricity.
Iran has been under increasing international pressure to halt its nuclear program. On Jan. 10. Iran broke the seals of the U.N. nuclear agency at its main uranium enrichment plant and resumed small-scale enrichment - a process that can produce the fuel for nuclear reactors or the material for atomic bombs.
The step provoked strong protests in Europe, which has been negotiating with Iran, and the United States. It also sparked moves to refer Iran's nuclear file to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions on the country.
Israel neither confirms nor denies it possesses nuclear arms. According to the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Israel has about 200 nuclear warheads deployed on ballistic missiles, aircraft and submarines.
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