War of (nuclear) words

2004-08-17 21:42

Tehran - Iran said on Tuesday it would destroy Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor if the Jewish state were to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.

A senior commander warned that Iranian missiles could reach Dimona.

"If Israel fires a missile into the Bushehr nuclear power plant, it has to say goodbye forever to its Dimona nuclear facility, where it produces and stockpiles nuclear weapons," said the deputy chief of the elite revolutionary guards, Brigadier General Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr.

Zolqadr was referring to the site of Iran's first nuclear reactor at Bushehr, a coastal town on the Gulf.

Built with Russian assistance, the reactor is due to come on stream in 2005.

Iran says its nuclear programme is strictly for the generation of electricity.

But Israel and the US strongly suspect Iran is secretly building nuclear weapons.

Israel has not threatened to attack the Bushehr reactor, but it has said it will not allow Iran to build a nuclear bomb.

In 1981, Israeli fighter-bombers destroyed a nuclear reactor that was under construction outside Baghdad because it feared Iraq would acquire a nuclear weapon.

Israel has never confirmed nor denied having nuclear weapons. But it is widely believed to be a nuclear power.

Its reactor at Dimona in the Negev Desert is said to be the source of plutonium for its alleged nuclear warheads.

Zolqadr did not say how Iran would attack Dimona, but the head of the revolutionary guards' political bureau, Yadollah Javani, said Iran would use its Shahab-3 missile.

"All the territory under the control of the Zionist regime, including its nuclear facilities, are within the range of Iran's advanced missiles," Javani said.

Iran announced last week it had successfully test-fired a new version of the Shahab-3, which has a range of 1 296km.

Israel is about 965km west of Iran.

US officials say the missile, whose name means shooting star in Farsi, is based on the North Korean "No Dong" rocket. Iran says Shahab-3 is entirely Iranian-made.

Israel has developed with the United States the Arrow anti-ballistic missile system.

It is said to be capable of intercepting and destroying missiles at high altitudes.

- AP