Iran would be 'decisive'

2009-07-06 09:02

Tokyo - A senior Iranian official, reacting to comments by US Vice President Joe Biden, on Monday said his country would respond "in a very full-scale and very decisive way" if it were attacked by Israel.

The Iranian official was speaking in Japan hours after US television broadcast an interview in which Biden said the United States would not stand in Israel's way in its dealings with Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Biden told ABC television's This Week that "we cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination, if they make a determination, that they're existentially threatened".

In Tokyo, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairperson of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said: "I think that America and Israel are fully aware what kind of result such a wrong judgement will entail.

"Israel showed its military power sufficiently in the 22-day war," its offensive in Gaza early this year, he told reporters.

"That kind of erroneous judgement poses a threat to the entire Middle Eastern region and the world."

He added: "If (an Israeli attack) occurred, then the Islamic Republic of Iran will respond in a very full-scale and very decisive way."

US President Barack Obama has said he wants to see progress on his diplomatic outreach to Iran by year's end, while not excluding a "range of steps", including tougher sanctions, if Tehran continued its nuclear drive.

Israel, the region's sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state, contends that Iran is seeking to acquire a nuclear arsenal, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not ruled out a possible military strike against Iran.

- AFP