Were Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, Iran would respond so strongly that it would put the Jewish state into "an eternal coma" like Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's, the Iranian defense minister said Wednesday. "Zionists should know that if they do anything evil against Iran, the response of Iran's armed forces will be so firm that it will send them into eternal coma, like Sharon," Gen. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said.
Najjar said the United States and Israel have been trying to frighten Iran, but neither country would dare attack to Iran.
Earlier Wednesday, Iran's president blamed Britain and the United States for two bombings that killed at least nine people in the southwestern city of Ahvaz on Tuesday. "Traces of the occupiers of Iraq is evident in the Ahvaz events. They should take responsibility in this regard," state television quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying.
The station reported that Ahmadinejad had issued a decree ordering his foreign minister and intelligence minister to investigate the possibility that "foreign hands" might have been responsible for the explosions.
At least nine people were killed in Tuesday's two blasts in Ahvaz, the capital of the oil-rich Khuzestan province which borders Iraq, police spokesman Mohammed Ali Pour said Wednesday. According to the official Islamic Republic News Agency, 46 people were wounded in the explosions, which took place inside a bank and outside a state environmental agency building.
Ahvaz has a history of violence involving members of Iran's Arab minority. Last year, bombings in June and October killed a total of 14 people in the city. In April, residents rioted for two days over claims, denied by the government, that the state was planning to reduce the number of Arabs in the area.
Iran has repeatedly accused Britain of provoking unrest in the region, which borders Iraq near where 8,500 British soldiers are based. Britain has denied any connection to the Khuzestan unrest.