Iran warns its missiles can hit anywhere in Israel
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-08-16 10:38

A senior Iranian military official said Sunday Israel and the United States would not dare attack Iran since it could strike back anywhere in Israel with its latest missiles, news agencies reported.

Iranian officials have made a point of highlighting the Islamic state's military capabilities in recent weeks in response to some media reports that Israeli or U.S. warplanes could try to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities in air strikes.

Iran last week said it carried out a successful test firing of an upgraded version of its Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile. Military experts said the unmodified Shahab-3 was already capable of striking Israel or U.S. bases in the Gulf.

"The entire Zionist territory, including its nuclear facilities and atomic arsenal, are currently within range of Iran's advanced missiles," the ISNA students news agency quoted Yadollah Javani, head of the Revolutionary Guards political bureau, as saying.

"Therefore, neither the Zionist regime nor America will carry out its threats" against Iran, he said.

An attack on Iran "could only be carried out by angry or stupid people. For that reason, officials of the Islamic Republic must always be prepared to counter possible military threats," Javani said in a statement, ISNA reported.

ISRAEL READIES MISSILE-KILLER

U.S. and Israeli officials accuse Iran of developing nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies.

Israel's Arrow missile defense system, designed to counter threats such as the Shahab-3, passed its first live test in July by downing a Scud missile off the coast of California.

Israeli officials say they plan further tests in the near future against threats which more closely resemble the Shahab-3.

"Such statements by Iran only serve to demonstrate the need for Israel to maintain and further develop defensive systems such as the Arrow II," a senior Israeli defense source told Reuters Sunday.

"It appears that Iran is rattling its saber for fear of a pre-emptive strike by Israel or the United States -- however grounded in fact such fears are or are not," the source said.

Israeli warplanes successfully destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981.

But many diplomats and defense experts say air strikes against Iran's nuclear plants are unlikely to disable Tehran's nuclear capability, much of which has been built underground, and could prompt a swift military reaction from Iran.

Since its 1979 Islamic revolution Iran has refused to recognize Israel's right to exist and allied itself to the Palestinian cause.

Its political enmity for the Jewish state spilled over to the Olympic Games in Athens this week when an Iranian judo medal favorite withdrew rather than fight an Israeli he was drawn against.

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