Defiant Iran warns Israel

Iran vowed yesterday it “will not budge an iota” from its nuclear path despite a new UN report hardening suspicions it is seeking atomic weapons, as an Iranian general warned Israel of “destruction” if it launched an attack.

The words of defiance fell while the US and its allies said they were looking at imposing more sanctions on Iran, and Tehran’s chief ally, China, urged the Islamic republic to cooperate with the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency.

But Russia ruled out backing new sanctions against Iran and held urgent consultations with its Soviet-era ally following the publication of the damning report from the IAEA.

After a week of sabre-rattling among Israeli officials and media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the world must end Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The UN nuclear watchdog’s report on Tuesday said “credible” evidence existed of Iran working towards making nuclear warheads to fit inside Shahab-3 medium-range missiles.

Iranian officials immediately characterised the report as “baseless” and hewing to intelligence provided by Iran’s arch-foe the United States.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday in a speech broadcast on state television: “We will not budge an iota from the path we are committed to.”

He reiterated that, contrary to the IAEA report, Iran’s nuclear programme was exclusively peaceful in nature, saying “we don’t need the atomic bomb.”

His deputy armed forces chief, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, warned however that any sign of Israel carrying out threats to attack Iran’s nuclear sites “will see its destruction.”

Brig. Jazayeri said in an interview with Iran’s Arabic-language channel Al-Alam that the Israeli nuclear site of Dimona was “the most accessible” target.

But he also stated that “our response would not be limited to the Middle East.”

Mr Netanyahu said the world must end Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

“The significance of the report is that the international community must bring about the cessation of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons which endanger the peace of the world and of the Middle East,” the Israeli premier said in a statement.

Israeli President Shimon Peres had said at the weekend that the probability of an attack on Iran was becoming “more and more likely.”

Amid the hard language in the IAEA report and the threats of Israeli military action, the US and its allies were talking up the possibility of additional sanctions on Iran.