Iran issues stark military warning to United States

AFP on Yahoo ^ | 4/14/06 | AFP

[NormsRevenge]

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran said it could defeat any American military action over its controversial nuclear drive, in one of the Islamic regime's boldest challenges yet to the United States.

"You can start a war but it won't be you who finishes it," said General Yahya Rahim Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guards and among the regime's most powerful figures.

"The Americans know better than anyone that their troops in the region and in Iraq are vulnerable. I would advise them not to commit such a strategic error," he told reporters on the sidelines of a pro-Palestinian conference in Tehran.

The United States accuses Iran of using an atomic energy drive as a mask for weapons development. Last weekend US news reports said President George W. Bush's administration was refining plans for preventive strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.

"I would advise them to first get out of their quagmire in Iraq before getting into an even bigger one," General Safavi said with a grin.

"We have American forces in the region under total surveillance. For the past two years, we have been ready for any scenario, whether sanctions or an attack."

Iran announced this week it had successfully enriched uranium to make nuclear fuel, despite a UN Security Council demand for the sensitive work to be halted by April 28.

The Islamic regime says it only wants to generate atomic energy, but enrichment can be extended to make the fissile core of a nuclear warhead -- something the United States is convinced that "axis of evil" member Iran wants to acquire.

At a Friday prayer sermon in Tehran, senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Janati simply branded the US as a "decaying power" lacking the "stamina" to block Iran's ambitions.

And hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told AFP that a US push for tough United Nations sanctions was of "no importance."

"She is free to say whatever she wants," the president replied when asked to respond to comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice highlighting part of the UN charter that provides for sanctions backed up by the threat of military action.

"We give no importance to her comments," he said with a broad smile.

On Thursday, Rice said that faced with Iran's intransigence, the United States "will look at the full range of options available to the United Nations."

"There is no doubt that Iran continues to defy the will of the international community," Rice said, after Iran also dismissed a personal appeal from the UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief must give a report at the end of April on Iranian compliance with the Security Council demand. In Tehran he said that after three years of investigations Iran's activities were "still hazy and not very clear."

Although the United States has been prodding the council to take a tough stand against the Islamic republic, including possible sanctions, it has run into opposition from veto-wielding members Russia and China.

Representatives of the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany are to meet in Moscow Tuesday to discuss the crisis.

In seeking to deter international action, Iran has been playing up its oil wealth, its military might in strategic Gulf waters and its influence across the region -- such as in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

At the Tehran conference, Iran continued to thumb its nose at the United States and Israel.

"The Zionist regime is an injustice and by its very nature a permanent threat," Ahmadinejad told the gathering of regime officials, visiting Palestinian militant leaders and foreign sympathizers.

"Whether you like it or not, the Zionist regime is on the road to being eliminated," said Ahmadinejad, whose regime does not recognise Israel and who drew international condemnation last year when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map."

Unfazed by his critics, the hardliner went on to repeat his controversial stance on the Holocaust.

"If there is serious doubt over the Holocaust, there is no doubt over the catastrophe and Holocaust being faced by the Palestinians," said the president, who had previously dismissed as a "myth" the killing of an estimated six million Jews by the Nazis and their allies during World War II.

"I tell the governments who support Zionism to ... let the migrants (Jews) return to their countries of origin. If you think you owe them something, give them some of your land," he said.

Iran's turbaned supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also accused the United States of seeking to place the entire region under Israeli control.

"The plots by the American government against Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon aimed at governing the Middle East with the control of the Zionist regime will not succeed," Khamenei said.

There was no immediate reaction from Washington, but French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy severely condemned Ahmadinejad for his latest remarks on Israel.

"As I have had occasion to do before, when the Iranian president made similar statements, I condemn these inacceptable remarks in the strongest possible terms," Douste-Blazy said in a statement.

"Israel's right to exist and the reality of the Holocaust should not be disputed," he added.

[Rider on the Rain]

This is a much bigger threat than Iraq ever was!

Well, Sir, so what? If you're wise enough, and brave enough, and don't put politics above our national interests, and indeed our very survival, then does it matter which arm of the axis of evil we take down first?

Those ROP Iranians are making the same mistake as Norieaga did. They have essentially declared war on us. Make no mistake about it Iran will be dealt with. When the time comes, and it's rapidly approaching, all hell will be let loose on them.

[Rider on the Rain]

This is a much bigger threat than Iraq ever was!

Well, Sir, so what? If you're wise enough, and brave enough, and don't put politics above our national interests, and indeed our very survival, then does it matter which arm of the axis of evil we take down first?

Those ROP Iranians are making the same mistake as Norieaga did. They have essentially declared war on us. Make no mistake about it Iran will be dealt with. When the time comes, and it's rapidly approaching, all hell will be let loose on them.

[baa39]

Interesting point, do you think that was part of the strategy? So as long as all those bases and things are established, we should take care of Syria too.

[onedoug]

"Start a war"? Only an idiot would think it hasn't been on for several years now.

[the invisib1e hand]

"I would advise them to first get out of their quagmire in Iraq before getting into an even bigger one," General Safavi said with a grin.

Been reading the NY Times or watching the Today Show too much.

[NormsRevenge]

agreed, it took 'em 2 attacks but they brought the towers down.

if that is not an act of war, what the hell is?

The road to tehran and damascus leads thru Baghdad, it's about time we repaved it with the heads of those who seek to wage war on all free peoples.

[Stentor]

This is a much bigger threat than Iraq ever was!

Ya think? Did it ever penetrate that Iran is what Iraq is all about. Never mind. return to sweaty fear.

[Buffettfan]

This raghead POS general has forgotten about our massive USAF back here in the USA that is just waiting to take a giant shi$t on him and his terrorist ilk.

Semper Fi'
Jarhead

[Stentor]

The road to tehran and damascus leads thru Baghdad

Exactement, to use a dead language.

[JmyBryan]

I hope he's ready for us, because Israel could take Iran without our help.

[bill1952]

I do believe that we clearly identified the problem areas - despite what the media says - and, after being attacked, started taking down those target areas.

I also believe - despite what the media says - that we have achieved superb results with very few losses.

Heck, the old armchair experts predicted 2,000 - 5,000 casualties in the push for Baghdad alone, and media savants were solemnly muttering about "Stalingrad."

We kicked the Taliban clear out of Afghanistan, and decimated the ranks of AQ first in Afghanistan, and now in Iraq.

Before, Pakistan was our sworn enemy.
Now they are hunting down AQ and Taliban members and Killing them, or turning the survivors over to us.

Before, the entire Iraqi army was aimed against us.
Now thousands of trained Iraqis are fighting AQ and Syrian terrorists.

Now we have huge military bases squarely positioned in the ME, much to the horror of every Islamo terrorist in the world.

There is no credible threat to our military.

Are there problems? Of course there are. Many of them, and they aren't going to just fade away.

But to say that all of these facts are just simple coincidence strains logic. - But the media would have you believe that these are all, in fact, failures.

We have a score to settle with Iran, - and Syria - we are in position on both sides of Iran, and they are in real danger of meeting our armed forces in person.

When the 06 elections are over... well, think about what happened to Fallujah, and when it happened.

[oldbrowser]

This is a real problem. The Iraqi conflict has sapped the US will for action when necessary. If the US or Israel don't take action soon, it will be too late. This is a much bigger threat than Iraq ever was!

It is the same threat that Iraq was. It's like peeling an onion, Afghanistan was first, Iraq was next, and there will be other layers .

Along the way we may deal with several more of the countries in the Middle East and who knows what we may find at the core.

This is a high stakes game of world politics and every country has to play.

[Post-Neolithic]

Now that's the ticket.

[CarryaBigStick]

Actually, I'd like to put a very long knife through his black heart and look him right in the eye while I twist the blade.

[TNdandelion]

Are you surrendering? Already? Are you French by any chance?

[randog]

Ya think? Did it ever penetrate that Iran is what Iraq is all about. Never mind. return to sweaty fear.

LOL!

Some Friday night musings on that topic....

1) Iraq is settling down as the Iraqi forces come online and take over the mop up. You can be guaranteed that they're not handling the situation with kid gloves.

2) Iran tried to de-stabilize Iraq with "insurgents", but notice how they didn't take advantage of Iraq's weakened position after the US invasion. If they really wanted to tangle with Uncle Sam, why not invade Iraq now? Because they know they'd get their @sses handed to them.

3) Iran is pinched by US forces on two sides now--Iraq and Afghanistan.

4) With the Iranian "insurgency" in Iraq failing, Iran is getting nervous and talking smack. They know the clock is ticking, so they crow about super missiles and enriched uranium in the hopes that the US will not call its bluff.

5) Syria is just plain scared silent.

[Tarpon]

Nope, the Democrats are the ones sapping.

Agree it has built into a bigger threat, with dems help Iran sees their opening.

[familyop]

"Why does all this crap keep coming out of the associated French press??"

I guess it's all according to whether one wants the Iranian leaders to look like the good guys or to look more the way they really are.

Here's a piece that attempts to make them look like the good guys.

"Hamidreza Babaei, a member of the National Security and Foreign Affairs Commission in Iran's parliament, said....'We want, without creating tensions or threats, to defend our national interest - which is to have the nuclear fuel cycle in our country for production of fuel for our reactors.'" --Roxana Saberi, BBC News

[familyop]

"People I know that KNOW say we are not as thin as our enemies like to believe."

Yes. We avoid publicizing any numbers near our real strength these days, but a very small part of our forces are in Iraq and Afghanistan--far less than 1/10th.

I'll put it this way. About three of our carrier groups could secure China, naval-wise, and we have about a dozen, IIRC.

[Theophilus]

The road to tehran and damascus...

I like to say: the fastest way out of Iraq is through Tehran and Damascus.