Israel has been escalating its verbal attack against Iran. Israeli army Chief of General Staff Lieutenant-General Shaul Mofaz said on Tuesday afternoon that Israel is well prepared for the threat of long-range Iranian missiles. Mofaz spoke before the Israeli Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
For over the past year, the Israeli army has prepared defense possibilities and is also prepared with other possibilities to counteract the Iranian threat, Mofaz commented.
He did not specify what these other possibilities were, Israel Radio reported.
On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres charged in New York that Iran has positioned members of its elite Revolutionary Guard in south Lebanon and has supplied Hizbullah with 10,000 rockets, some with a 70-kilometer range.
"Iran has transformed Lebanon into a powder keg, endangering the future of Lebanon," Peres said. "The Iranians have Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon, which is illegal (and) contrary to the United Nations charter."
Peres, who was addressing reporters after meeting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, stated that the rockets supplied by Iran to Hizbullah had ranges of between 20 and 70 kilometers, "so that they can hit the heart of Israel."
In a related matter, Israel’s Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh, an ex-general, said Tuesday that Iran's aim was to "wipe Israel off the map." The current regime in Teheran, he told the Israeli Radio, believes that "from a religious point of view, Israel has no right to exist. Its army, the rockets in south Lebanon are all meant for this purpose. This is the regime's ideology and strategy." Sneh added that Israel had "no intention of attacking Iran."
The latest comments were made in the context of recent escalating rhetoric between Tel Aviv and Teheran. Iran warned Israel on Monday not to consider attacking its nuclear power plant, saying the Islamic republic would retaliate in ways "unimaginable" to the Jewish state.
Shamkhani
Meanwhile, Iran’s Forces Rear-Admiral Ali Shamkhani said on Tuesday that the US president has made interventionist statement against Iran.
He told reporters that the United States would make mistake if it tests the Iranian nation that has passed numerous examinations in the past.
"Unfortunately, the US policy is directly being influenced by the Zionist lobby. Absence of an independent willpower in the US administration has driven the American people to fragile political, economic and security crises," Shamkhani said.
He said that the US administration has decided to transfer its national crisis to other nations. The crisis which emanated from inaccurate and illogical policy, the Iranian defense minister said.
Al-Qaeda Fighters in Iran
Tehran sought help from Washington on Tuesday to arrest al Qaeda fighters who may have fled to the Islamic Republic from war-torn Afghanistan. This conciliatory gesture made to the United States, comes after days of escalating angry rhetoric between the two countries.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi firmly denied U.S. charges that Tehran had helped Taliban and al Qaeda activists to flee a U.S. military operation on the neighboring country of Afghanistan.
"These are all mere excuses. Instead of waging negative propaganda, the Americans had better give us any information they have so that we go after them and keep them out of Iran," Kharrazi said in a joint news conference with visiting South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Kharrazi's comments were the first conciliatory remarks coming from Iran, after U.S. President George W. Bush accused Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, of being part of an "axis of evil" during his State of the Union speech last week.
Bush's harsh remarks led to a war of words between Tehran and Washington.
Iran's military said on Monday it was prepared to meet any U.S. attack. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
