Iran 'ready' for US aggression

2006-02-15 20:59

Tehran - Iran is ready to counter any US aggression with offensive action, the head of the country's elite Revolutionary Guards warned on Wednesday amid an escalating international dispute over Tehran's nuclear activities.

"We have worked on all defensive and offensive scenarios for any possible attacks," General Yahya Rahim Safavi told state television.

"Currently there is no military threat against our country, and the United States and Israel are only talking about our nuclear program as part of psychological war in order to escape from their defeat in Iraq and Palestine," he charged.

Earlier this month, US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Washington did not rule out using military force against Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Iran on Tuesday confirmed it had resumed limited uranium enrichment - a process that makes reactor fuel but can also be extended to make the core of a nuclear weapon - despite renewed warnings from world powers.

Safavi had warned at the end of January that Iran was ready to use its ballistic missiles - another source of concern in the West - if it was attacked.

The International Atomic Energy Agency voted on February 4 to report the Islamic republic to the UN security council over its atomic program and is due to meet again on March 6.

- AFP