TEHRAN, April 18: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday vowed that Iran's armed forces would “cut off the hand” of any enemy that launched an attack on the Islamic republic.

“Our army has a defensive mission and not an offensive one. But it is completely ready to confront any aggressor and cut off their hand,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast on state television to mark Iran's army day.

“The army and armed forces must be more ready with each passing day,” he said in the speech to a military parade outside the shrine of Iran's revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The United States has refused to rule out the option of military action to bring Iran to heel over its controversial atomic drive which Washington says is aimed at making weapons. Iran insists that its nuclear programme is peaceful. Iran's repeated refusal to suspend sensitive uranium enrichment operations has already earned it two sets of UN sanctions targeting its ballistics and nuclear industries.

“They think that with sanctions on our weapons we would be paralysed but we have succeeded in producing all we need in arms,” said Ahmadinejad in his brief address to the armed forces.

Following Ahmadinejad's speech, the army started a large-scale parade in front of the stand of the president and Iran's military top brass, which was expected later to include a display of military equipment. Ahmadinejad said that despite the standoff over its nuclear programme, Iran wanted to have friendly relations with all countries, with the exception of Israel which it refuses to recognise.—AFP