Iran not walking scared

2005-01-26 11:31

Tehran - Iran will carry out an "astonishing" retaliation to any attack against the Islamic republic by Israel or the United States, a top Revolutionary Guards commander was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

"We will counter any stupid action by Israel and its master with firmness and in an astonishing way," Brigadier-General Mohammad-Ali Jafari was quoted as saying by the Shargh newspaper.

The commander of the Revolutionary Guards' ground forces said Iran now had to capacity to defeat any invader within months.

"We pushed the Baathist enemy from our country within one and a half years," he said, referring to the opening campaigns of the 1980-88 war with Iraq.

"With the experience and skills from that war and in the case of any invasion, the invaders will be defeated in less than one and a half months," Jafari said.

In recent days United States officials have hardened their tone against the Islamic republic, which US President George W Bush has already lumped into an "axis of evil".

Last Monday Bush said he could not rule out using force if Tehran failed to rein in its nuclear plans, and US vice-president Dick Cheney said Iran was "right at the top of the list" of global trouble spots.

Cheney also warned that Israel might launch a pre-emptive strike on its own to shut down Iran's nuclear programme.

- AFP