USING NUCLEAR WEAPONS BRINGS HAVOC FOR IRAN

Posted Monday, November 8, 2004

TEHRAN, 8 Nov. (IPS) A high-ranking officer of the Iranian revolutionary Guards admitted Monday for the first time that using atomic weapons by Iran would have “adverse results” for the country.

Using non conventional weapons in military dimension would produce adverse effects for the nation.

“Using non conventional weapons is in contradiction with the fundaments of our religion and in military dimension, such arms would produce adverse effects for the nation”, the acting commander in chief of the ruling ayatollah’s Praetorian Guard General Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr told journalists on the occasion of the so-called “Qods (Jerusalem) Day”, that falls on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramazan and marks the Islamic Republic’s solidarity with the people of Palestine.

Analysts noted that this is the first time that a senior military officer was both admitting that the Islamic Republic might be in possession of nuclear arms and warning against using them.

Last week, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i stated that atomic weapons were against Iranian religious jurisdictions that are based on Islamic Canons. However neither Mr. Khameneh’i nor the general failed to explain how Islam could have banned the production of an arm that did not exist on the time of Muslim’s prophet Mohammad?

The United States and Israel accuse Iran of seeking to develop atomic bombs under cover of a civilian nuclear program. Iran denies the charges saying it only intends to produce electricity from nuclear power plants.

Mr. Zolqadr described Israel’s threats against Iran as “political bluffing” and warned that Tehran would strike back at the Jewish State or any other country that attacked Iran’s nuclear installations.

"Not Israel, but no other power in the world is capable of attacking Iranian nuclear centres. However, if Israel or any other country attacks any site in Iran, we know no limits to threaten their interests anywhere in the world", Mr. Zolqadr said, adding that the enemy cannot sustain an “all out riposte from Iranian armies.

According to Mr. Zolqadr, considered as a hard line officer, no nation would dare to attack Iran’s 10 millions trained basijis (volunteers) and one million soldiers “ready to defend their Islamic state”.

His comments were an answer to recent press reports that Israel is considering the destruction of Iranian nuclear facilities on the same pattern they used for the bombing of Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981.

But most military experts doubt about the seriousness of Israel’s plans for Iran, noting that not only Tel Aviv was in possession of all details concerning the location of Iraq’s nuclear facility, but also it benefited from the ongoing war between Iran and Iraq, while in the case of Iran, the nuclear facilities for military use are well hidden and scattered across the vast country.

If Israel or any other country attacks any nuclear site in Iran, we know no limits to threaten their interests anywhere in the world.

Iran is known to have developed a sophisticated missile system based on the Shahab 3 ballistic missile that, with a range of 1.500-2.000 kilometres, can easily hit Israel.

According to the commander, Iran reorganised its armed forces after the eight years Iran-Iraq War and also benefited from America’s invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan and Iraq.

Earlier the commander addressed high-school students at a conference entitled "The World Without America."

"The world without America is a world without oppression, without terror, without invasion, without massacre", he said in a speech, adding America today is the symbol of all the world’s miseries. “If America abandons these evil qualities, the world would be a much better place to live”. ENDS ZOLQADR THREATS 81104