Iran hints at 'ball of fire' response

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-26  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

IRAN'S parliament speaker warned the West yesterday that it may face "a done deal" if it provokes Iran, a stern hint that Tehran could build nuclear weapons if attacked.

The speaker, Ali Larijani, who was once Iran's top nuclear negotiator, also warned that a "short opportunity is left" for a deal with Iran over its nuclear program that the United States and some of its allies fear is aimed at producing an atomic bomb. Iran has long denied it intends to build a nuclear weapon, saying its program is meant only to generate electricity.

Larijani, one of Iran's most powerful politicians, did not directly warn that Iran could change its intentions, but his vague comment appeared aimed at raising that possibility.

Larijani pointed to recent comments by Mohamed ElBaradei, the United Nations nuclear watchdog chief, who said in an interview last week that a military strike on Iran could turn the Mideast into a "ball of fire" and "prompt Iran, even if it didn't produce a nuclear weapon today, to resort to an emergency plan to produce a nuclear weapon." Larijani said the West should "take Mr ElBaradei's warnings seriously."

"Don't provoke Iran otherwise you will face a done deal that will block the path of your return to a compromise with Iran," Larijani told an open session of the parliament broadcast live on state radio.

The warning came on the heels of military exercises by Israel that US officials said was a message to Iran.

A hard-line newspaper also hinted yesterday that Iran may weaponize its nuclear program if attacked.

"Even if Iran's nuclear facilities are totally destroyed, a possibility that is precisely zero, it will easily be revived within a short period of time, but with the difference that it may prompt a fundamental reconsideration in intentions," the daily Kayhan said in an editorial.

A top commander of the Revolutionary Guards yesterday also warned that an attack on Iran would draw the US into "a new tragedy."