Iranian commander - Israel will be first target if U.S. does 'evil'

Since 05-05-06

By Reuters

05/02/2006

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/712068.html

TEHRAN - Israel will be Iran's first target in response to any "evil" act by the United States, a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said Tuesday.

"We have announced that wherever America does something evil, the first place that we target will be Israel," Revolutionary Guards Rear Admiral Mohammad-Ebrahim Dehqani was quoted as saying by Iran's student news agency ISNA.

The United States says it wants Iran's nuclear standoff with the West solved diplomatically but has refused to rule out military action.

Meanwhile, diplomats associated with the United Nation's nuclear watchdog say Iran has created a new reality in its nuclear dispute with much of the world by achieving uranium enrichment, while Western powers pursue a strategy that has yet to pay off.

After the International Atomic Energy Agency reported last week that Iran had not met UN demands, U.S., British and French envoys are now seeking a Security Council resolution that would legally oblige Tehran to halt all enrichment activity.

But a proud Iran is unlikely to buckle after overcoming technical barriers to producing low-enriched uranium as fuel for nuclear power plants, the diplomats in Vienna say.

The U.S.-led push for UN action has prompted Iran to halt snap checks by the IAEA on suspected atomic sites, increasing uncertainty about Tehran's activities.

The diplomats also argue that the Western strategy ignores Iranian security fears that may be partly motivating what the West suspects is a covert quest for atomic bombs.

"The fixation of the West, especially Washington, on 'denying' Iran enrichment capability is a stupid policy and a failure proven by the fact that Iran has now achieved it," said a senior Vienna diplomat familiar with the IAEA's Iran dossier.

"There is little doubt Iran aspires eventually to be able to enrich uranium to the high level needed for a bomb. But the only way to deter that is security and trade guarantees and only the Americans can offer that, via direct talks."

A top Iranian nuclear official also said Tuesday that Iran has discovered new deposits of uranium and was continuing its nuclear enrichment program despite international protests, The deputy chief for nuclear research and technology, Mohammad Ghannadi, said Iran had found at least three new uranium deposits in central Iran and was working toward mining them.

"We have got good news: the discovery of new uranium mines in central Iran," Ghannadi told a conference Tuesday.

"One is in Khoshoomi region in central Iran. Studies have already been made and samples have already been taken there. The other two are in Charchooleh and Narigan in central Iran," Ghannadi said.