TEHRAN, Feb 24: Iran said on Saturday the United States was not in a position to take military action against it and urged Washington and its allies to engage in dialogue.
“We do not see America in a position to impose another crisis on its tax payers inside America by starting another war in the region,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters.
Mottaki was responding to US Vice President Dick Cheney, who renewed Washington's warning to Iran earlier on Saturday that “all options” were on the table if Tehran continues to defy UN demands to halt uranium enrichment.
At a joint news conference with Prime Minister John Howard during a visit to Australia, Cheney said the United States was “deeply concerned” about Iran's activities, including the “aggressive” sponsoring of Hezbollah and inflammatory statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Cheney said top US officials would meet soon with European allies to decide the next step toward planned tough sanctions against Iran if it continues enriching uranium.
“But I've also made the point, and the president has made the point, that all options are on the table,” he said, leaving open the possibility of military action.
The United States and several of its Western allies fear that Iran is using its nuclear programme to produce an atomic weapon -- charges Iran vehemently denies, saying its aim is to generate electricity.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported on Thursday that Iran had ignored a UN Security Council ultimatum to freeze its uranium enrichment programme and had expanded the programme by setting up hundreds of centrifuges.
Enriched to a low level, uranium is used to produce nuclear fuel but further enrichment makes it suitable for use in building an atomic bomb.
The IAEA report came after Wednesday's deadline of a 60-day grace period for Iran to halt uranium enrichment. Iran has repeatedly refused to halt enrichment as a precondition to negotiations about its programme.
Mottaki said negotiations, not threats, were the only way left to resolve the standoff over Iran's nuclear activities and urged the US and its allies to return to dialogue when they are scheduled to meet in London next week.—AP
