September 20, 2007	Thursday	Ramazan 07, 1428

TEHRAN, Sept 19: Iran warned on Wednesday that it could bomb Israel if it was attacked by the Jewish state, as the international war of words over the Islamic republic’s nuclear drive escalated further.

The declaration by Iran’s deputy air force commander Mohammad Alavi was immediately denounced by the United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, which accuses Tehran of seeking to build an atomic bomb.

“We have come up with a plan that in the event of possible foolishness by this regime, Iranian bombers can carry out an attack in retaliation against Israeli soil,” Alavi said, quoted by the Fars news agency.

“In addition to our missiles, whose range covers the whole soil of this regime, we can attack them with our fighter jets and respond to any attack — an unlikely event — with an air attack on their soil.

“This plan is not an empty threat because everything we do is based on planning. So Israel should remove any foolishness from its head.” His comments came after French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned that the world should brace for war against Tehran over its nuclear activities.

The United States and its ally Israel have never ruled out using military strikes to punish Iran for its defiance in the standoff and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday that “all options are on the table.” There has been speculation in some foreign media that an Israeli air strike on Syria earlier this month — which has never been confirmed by Israel — was a “dry run” for an attack against Iran’s nuclear installations.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a visit to the Middle East, called for diplomatic action “with teeth” against its nuclear programme ahead of a meeting of Western powers in Washington on Friday to discuss a new UN Security Council sanctions resolution.

“We believe that the diplomatic track can work but it has to work both with a set of incentives and a set of teeth,” she said.

Iran’s military elite has previously warned the United States of the consequences of any attack, saying US bases in neighbouring Afghanistan and Iraq are well within the range of its missiles.

Tehran has always insisted it will never initiate an attack but has vowed it will respond with crushing force to any violation of its territory.

The United States and France want tougher sanctions against Iran, which has has repeatedly denied Western claims it is covertly developing an atomic weapon and says its nuclear programme is aimed solely at generating energy.

Washington is working on a new draft sanctions resolution to be discussed at Friday’s meeting of the five UN Security Council permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday.

“What we’re doing is working on the elements of a resolution ... We put down on paper some of those ideas, what it might -—what a resolution might look like,” McCormack said.

Foreign ministers from the six are to meet in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, on September 28, the spokesman added.

The Security Council has adopted three resolutions against Iran, mostly over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a process which makes fuel for a nuclear power plant but which can be diverted to make the core of a bomb.

The French foreign minister pressed the case for tougher sanctions during talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday, but he said Russia remains reluctant to back more stringent action.

Kouchner has also sought to calm a diplomatic storm after his comments on Sunday on the possibility of war with Iran.

“Someone asked me: what does it mean when you say you are expecting the worst? I replied: the worst would be war. I didn’t say: the best would be war,” said Kouchner, who added that he favoured intense negotiations.

Iran, which has accused France of just carrying out US policy, lashed out again on Wednesday, saying Kouchner’s comments were the result of “amateurs” working in European politics.—AFP