“We have drawn a plan so that in the case of this regime’s potential foolishness, Iran’s bombers could strike Israel in return,” Mohammad Alavi, deputy chief for Iran’s air force operations, was quoted as saying by the state-run Fars news agency today.
Iran doesn’t officially recognize Israel. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Jewish state “the flag of Satan” at a religious conference last month, state news agencies reported at the time. He has also said that Israel should be “wiped off the map.”
The U.S. State Department is trying to rally support for a third round of sanctions against Iran at the Security Council in New York over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, which the Bush administration says is a cover for development of an atomic bomb. Iran denies the charge, insisting that the program is designed to generate electricity.
White House press secretary Dana Perino called Alavi’s comment “unhelpful,” the Associated Press reported. “It is not constructive and it almost seems provocative,” AP cited her as saying. “Israel doesn’t seek a war with its neighbors. And we all are seeking, under the UN Security Council resolutions, for Iran to comply with its obligations.”
Iran has threatened in the past that Israel would be its first retaliatory target if the Islamic Republic were attacked by the U.S., AP said. Alavi’s comments though were the first word of specific contingency plans for striking back at Israel, AP added.
