Khatami: Iran will become `burning hell` for any aggressor
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Tehran, Feb 10, IRNA -- President Mohammad Khatami Thursday warned that Iran would unleash hell if it were attacked, while another top official described a likely assault on the country`s nuclear facilities as `the most stupid move`. "If, God forbid, any aggressor puts its foot on this land, Iran will turn into a burning hell for them," he told thousands of demonstrators who had gathered at a famous square here to mark the 26th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. "The Iranian nation is not after a war, violence or clashes, but the world must know that the Iranians will not tolerate any invasion," Khatami said to the chants of `Death to America` and Death to `Israel`. Hassan Rowhani, Iran`s top negotiator on nuclear issues, described a likely assault on the country`s nuclear sites as `the most stupid move`. "Neither the international organizations, nor bullying and military threats (of world powers) can deprive Iran of its legitimate rights," he told demonstrators in the holy city of Mashhad. "Nuclear technology is not a gift presented to us so as to be taken back; this technology is the fruit of our young, faithful and hard-working scientists efforts)," Rowhani said. The official said Iran has achieved its objectives to disprove US claims about the nature of the country`s nuclear program. "Iran implemented a complicated legal plan to disprove the Americans` false claims and proved that they were lying about Iran`s nuclear program." Rowhani said Iranians set another epic in the political and legal scene by adamantly defending their legitimate nuclear rights, adding `the international community had to acknowledge that Iran is telling the truth and that it is moving on a legal path`. Khatami branded US threats as part of a `psychological warfare` being waged in accordance with the `expansionist policies of the American conservatives`. The president also denounced `the slanders of the American rulers against the Iranian nation and the establishment`, saying they were aimed at `putting a cover on the failures of an extremist US policy`. "This ballyhoo is aimed at concealing their failures and whenever their failures add up, they become further foul-mouthed," he said. "They have no answer to the world public opinion for initiating the (Iraq) war; hence, the Americans are becoming further enlightened to the war-mongering policies of their rulers," Khatami added. Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani brushed aside a possible US assault on Iran, saying `the Americans will never be able to unleash a military attack on the Islamic Iran`. "When they take everything into account, they will conclude that there exists nowhere in the region, having the conditions for a possible attack on Iran," he told demonstrators in the central desert city of Yazd. "Iran is not a small country like Iraq; wherever they attack us, they will be attacked," Shamkhani added. George W. Bush was quoted last month saying that he `will never take any option off the table` when asked whether his regime was willing to consider a military action against Tehran`s peaceful nuclear program. In his State of the Union address, Bush charged that Iran `remains the world`s primary state sponsor of terror -- pursuing nuclear weapons while depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve`. Bush`s bellicose remarks were echoed by his hawkish Vice President Dick Cheney who has said Israel might strike Iran`s nuclear facilities `without being asked`. The statements come on the backdrop of a report written by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker magazine, saying US operatives were scouting inside Iran to identify targets for possible air strikes. Iranian officials have brushed off the report, stressing that it is part of a `psychological warfare` being waged by US officials to make the Europeans abandon their diplomatic negotiations with Iran. US Pentagon officials have said the New Yorker report was `riddled with errors`. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that a military attack is simply not on the agenda `at this point of the time`. 2323/1416
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