A senior military commander warned on Saturday that any attack on Iran would start a new world war, as Tehran pressed on with its controversial nuclear drive despite the risk of further UN sanctions. "Any aggression against Iran will start a world war," deputy chief of staff for defense publicity, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, said in a statement carried by the state news agency IRNA.
Iran is under international pressure to halt uranium enrichment, a process which lies at the core of fears about Iran's nuclear program as it can make nuclear fuel as well as the fissile core of an atom bomb. "The unrestrained greed of the US leadership and global Zionism... is gradually leading the world to the edge of a precipice," Jazayeri said, citing the unrest in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and Georgia. "It is evident that if such a challenge occurs, the fake and artificial regimes will be eliminated before anything," he said, without naming any countries.
Iran does not recognize Israel, which is often described by officials in Tehran as a "fake regime" and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has provoked international outrage saying it should be wiped off the map.
The United States has never ruled out military action against Iran over its defiance of international demands for an enrichment freeze, but so far is pursuing the diplomatic route.
Iran has repeatedly vowed a crushing response to any attacks and has flexed military muscles in recent years by holding war games and showing off an array of home-grown weaponry including ballistic missiles.
During war games in July which stoked international concern, aides to the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Iran would target US bases and US ships in the Gulf as well as Israel if it was attacked. Iran also test-fired its Shahab-3 missile which it says puts Israel within range. |