Iran vows swift response to Israeli attack
Middle East Desk Report

TEHRAN—Iran and its Revolutionary Guards would respond swiftly if Israel attacked the Islamic state over its disputed nuclear program, an official said on Sunday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini also said Iran was pressing ahead with an expansion of its uranium enrichment work with plans to install 3,000 centrifuges by March 2007, despite U.N. demands to halt the endeavor.
The West fears Iran is trying to develop atomic weapons. Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil exporter, says its program is designed to meet energy needs. Iran has two chains of 164 centrifuges, which can make fuel for power plants or material for warheads.
That number would take years to produce enough material for a single warhead but Iran has says plans to install thousands for its peaceful aims.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert started a visit to Washington on Sunday with Tehran’s nuclear program one of the main issues on the agenda. Israeli officials have said they want the international community, which has been pushing Iran to halt its atomic work, to resolve the dispute through diplomatic means.
But Israel bombed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981 to prevent former President Saddam Hussein from making atomic weapons, and some analysts have speculated that Israel could consider similar action against Iran if it felt threatened.
Experts say knocking out Iran’s nuclear facilities would be a far tougher prospect than it was in Iraq partly because Iranian sites are spread out and heavily protected. “If Israel takes such a stupid step and attacks, the answer of Iran and its Revolutionary Guard will be rapid, firm and destructive and it will be given in a few seconds,” Hosseini told a news conference.
The Guards are an ideologically driven wing of Iran’s military with a separate command structure to regular units. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel should be “wiped off the map” but has also said Iran is not a threat. Iran refuses to recognize Israel.
Israel is widely believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, although it has never said it possesses such weapons. Iran often complains about Western double standards in failing to confront Israel about its atomic capabilities.
“As long as some members of the U.N. Security Council support this (Israeli) regime with their veto right, there is no guarantee of establishing peace and justice in this region,” Ahmadinejad told a conference of Asian MPs in Tehran on Sunday.
Iran has rejected U.N. demands to halt enrichment and the U.N. Security Council is now considering imposing sanctions. Iran’s chief atomic negotiator, Ali Larijani, said passing a U.N. sanctions resolution “means that they (the West) don’t want to resolve this issue through talks,” Iran’s IRNA news agency reported.
Asked if Iran still aimed to install 3,000 centrifuges by the end of the Iranian year in March 2007, Hosseini said: “Iran is trying to do so under the supervision of the IAEA.”
The U.N. watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, makes routine checks of Iran’s nuclear sites.
In Vienna, diplomats said the IAEA was unlikely to approve Iran’s request for technical help with a heavy water plant because of fears it could yield atom bombs. The IAEA board has repeatedly asked Iran to “reconsider” the project at Arak.