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Sydney Morning Herald: Iran has strategy to bomb Israel, official warns

Borzou Daragahi in Dubai
Friday September 21, 2007

A SENIOR Iranian military official says his country has drawn up plans to attack Israel from the air in case of war between the two countries.

In an interview published by the Iranian semi-official Fars News Agency on Wednesday, General Mohammed Alavi, a deputy commander in the air force, was quoted as saying his country could attack Israel with long-range missiles as well as fighter aircraft in case of war.

General Alavi spoke in the wake of remarks by the French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, who said on Sunday that nations should prepare for a possible war with Iran if it continued with its nuclear drive.

Israeli and US officials have also threatened the possibility of pre-emptive attacks on Iran to block it from obtaining advanced nuclear technology that could be used to build atomic weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is meant to augment civilian energy needs.

Military analysts say Iran could retaliate against any US or Israeli air raids by hitting targets in the Persian Gulf, disrupting oil flows or launching attacks on US forces in Iraq or Afghanistan.

But General Alavi said an Israeli attack on Iran would prompt retaliation against Israel.

“Such a plan is not just a hollow threat, and we do everything on the basis of correct and precise planning, and we have gained the needed readiness,” General Alavi was quoted as saying. “We can also attack them by our fighter planes and respond to their possible air strikes.”

General Alavi said he did not think Israel would attack Iran.

On Wednesday Dr Kouchner strongly defended his sharp stance on Iran’s nuclear program, saying his earlier remarks that the world had to prepare for a possible war against Iran had been misinterpreted and that he was a man of peace.

As criticism of France for its war rhetoric increased, Dr Kouchner set out in a lengthy morning interview with the radio station France Inter to explain and defend, but not retract, his words. “I said, ‘The worst, it is war,”‘ Dr Kouchner said. “‘The worst,’ this is not what I want. I did not say, ‘The best, it’s war.’ I did not say, ‘My choice, it’s war.’ I said, ‘The worst.”‘

At times sounding defensive, at times irritated, he said: “I am not a warmonger; I am a peace-monger.” He faulted the news media around the world “for throwing, like a bomb, one word without explaining it.”

On Wednesday the French Defence Minister, Herve Morin, said the country had no plan to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/iran-has-strategy-to-bomb-israel-official-warns/2007/09/20/1189881683913.html

 

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