Iran has plan to take out Israel should they attack Iran‏

Nazila Fathi

A SENIOR Iranian military official has warned that Tehran has prepared a plan to attack Israel if Israel bombs Iran.

“We have drawn up a plan to strike back at Israel with our bombers if this regime possibly makes a silly mistake,” General Mohammad Alavi, the deputy commander of Iran’s air force, said.

General Alavi spoke after remarks by 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. Mr Kouchner and the French Foreign Ministry subsequently toned down the remarks.

International pressure on Iran increased this week. The permanent members of the UN Security Council — the US, France, Britain, China and Russia — plus Germany will meet in Washington tomorrow Melbourne time to discuss tougher economic sanctions on Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Iran has already been the target of two sets of economic sanctions.

The US and some European countries accuse Iran of having a clandestine nuclear arms program. But Iran insists that its program is peaceful.

General Alavi added in a long interview with Iranian news agency Fars that Iran’s “missiles can reach all parts of Israel” if Iran wants to retaliate.

“In addition, we can attack them with our fighter bombers in case of an unlikely attack.

“They should know that we will destroy at least 30 per cent of their forces before they can leave our country,” he warned, referring to a possible air strike against Iran.

Iranian officials have dismissed threats of war as psychological warfare, but have vowed to retaliate if attacked.

The White House said General Alavi’s comments were “totally unprovoked and unnecessary”.

Earlier, Iranian Government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham dismissed as “far fetched” the idea that, if attacked, Iran would block the Hormuz Strait, the world’s most important waterway for oil shipments.

But he said: “We would use all our means to defend ourselves, because territorial integrity is a key issue for every country.”

US Navy chiefs are concerned that Iran could resort to mining the strait and the wider Gulf in a major conflict.

■A firestorm has erupted over a request made last month by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit Ground Zero so he could lay a wreath.

The request was rejected by New York police because the site is closed while construction continues on the Freedom Tower.

But a mis-statement by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who said the request was still being considered, made its way to the websites of several newspapers and sparked a torrent of criticism from presidential candidates.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani called Mr Ahmadinejad’s request “outrageous”, describing him as “a man who has made threats against the US and Israel; is harbouring (Osama) bin Laden’s son and other al-Qaeda leaders; is shipping arms to Iraqi insurgents; and is pursuing the development of nuclear weapons”.

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