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TEHRAN, Jan 18: Iran has the military might to deter attacks against it, Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani said on Tuesday, after US President George Bush said he would not rule out military force against Iran over its nuclear programme.
"We are able to say that we have strength such that no country can attack us because they do not have precise information about our military capabilities due to our ability to implement flexible strategies," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Mr Shamkhani as saying.
"We can claim that we have rapidly produced equipment that has resulted in the greatest deterrent," he said, without elaborating. In October, Iran announced successful trials of its Shahab-3 ballistic missile with a range of 2,000kms, putting parts of Europe, as well as Israel and US bases in the Gulf, within reach.
Mr Bush said on Monday Washington would not rule out military action against Iran - which he has labelled as part of an "axis of evil" alongside Iraq and North Korea - if it was not more forthcoming about its suspected nuclear weapons programme.
Washington accuses Tehran of trying to acquire nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is aimed solely at producing electricity. "Iran has no fear of foreign enemies' threats ... as they are very well aware that the Islamic Republic is not a place for adventurism," the ISNA student news agency quoted influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as saying.
Mr Bush's comments followed an article in the New Yorker magazine on Sunday that said US commando units were conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran to identify alleged nuclear and chemical sites for possible strikes. Pentagon officials have said the New Yorker report was "riddled with errors".
EU ADVOCATES DIPLOMACY: The European Union insisted on Tuesday diplomacy was the right approach with Iran. "We are seeking a diplomatic solution. I think that is the right way to go," German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told reporters in the northern German city of Kiel.
Britain, Germany and France have sought to persuade Iran to give up technology that could be used to make nuclear warheads in return for incentives such as trade deals and help with a civilian nuclear programme.
European Commission external affairs spokeswoman Emma Udwin said: "We are working with our Iranian partners in good faith as I trust they are working with us in good faith. We will pursue that path as long as it's possible and fruitful to do so."
Russia defended Iran, its key nuclear energy market in the Middle East, where it has been building a nuclear reactor since the early 1990s in a project worth one billion dollars.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by the Inter fax news agency as saying: "I have no grounds to believe that the situation will get out of control and that the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme will be changed." -Reuters
