TEHRAN, Sept 18: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Iran does “not take seriously” a warning from the French foreign minister that the world should brace for war against Tehran.

“We do not take these declarations seriously. Comments to the media are different to the real positions,” Ahmadinejad told reporters after a speech to parliament. The remarks were his first public reaction to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner’s warning on Sunday that the world should brace for war against Tehran over its controversial nuclear programme.

The president did not elaborate, but his comments were in line with the oft-repeated conviction of Iranian leaders that the United States would not dare strike Iran at a time when Washington is fighting in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan.

The United States has never ruled out using military strikes to punish Iran for its defiance in the nuclear standoff and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday that “all options are on the table.” But Iran believes the case over its nuclear programme is closed owing to its increased transparency in answering questions from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The United States accuses Iran of seeking an atomic weapon. That charge is vehemently denied by Tehran, which says its nuclear drive is aimed at providing electricity for a growing population whose fossil fuels will one day run out.

“France: ‘Be ready for war’. Iran: ‘Don’t make American threats’,” ran the headline in the centrist daily Kargozaran. “Kouchner’s war-mongering statements overshadow nuclear talks.” Reformist daily Etemad-e Melli said “a new lining up against Iran.” Other Iranian officials protested that the comments showed the increasing influence the United States had over policy in Paris since the election in May of President Nicolas Sarkozy,

France’s line on the Iranian nuclear standoff has hardened considerably in recent months, with Sarkozy moving to promote closer relations with Washington and himself warning that Iran risked being bombed.

Iran’s number two national security official, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, described Kouchner’s comments as “unacceptable”.

“He has been influenced by the climate that has been created,” he said according to state news agency IRNA.

Alaedin Boroujerdi, the president of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said that if the French government continued its “illogical” stance then parliament would take “hard measures” against Paris.

Foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said on Monday the comments showed “the influence of unreal suggestions and erroneous information from others” and would damage France’s credibility in the region.

IRNA also launched a withering attack on the French government, accusing it of “copying the White House” and saying Sarkozy has “taken on an American skin.” And Iran’s military elite has warned the United States of the consequences of any attack, saying US bases in Afghanistan and Iraq are well within the range of its missiles.

“Any military attack would be answered in the shortest time possible,” said the supreme leader’s top military advisor, Yahya Rahim Safavi, according to the Fars news agency.—AFP