AFP: A former commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said mounting US rhetoric against the Islamic republic over its nuclear programme should be taken seriously in comments published on Sunday.
TEHRAN (AFP) A former commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said mounting US rhetoric against the Islamic republic over its nuclear programme should be taken seriously in comments published on Sunday.
“The enemy recently has increased its threats against Iran and no one should take them as jokes,” former Guards commander Mohsen Rezaie was quoted as saying by the reformist Aftab Yazd newspaper.
“But the Iranian nation has the capacity to resist these threats,” Rezaie added.
Washington has never ruled out military action against Iran over its nuclear programme although the White House insists it wants to solve the crisis through diplomacy.
In recent weeks, a number of Iranian politicians, both reformist and conservative, have warned of the reality of the threats against Iran despite efforts by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to brush off the idea of a US attack, saying US forces are too bogged down in Iraq.
Ahmadinejad famously said in September that his mathematical skills as an engineer and his faith in God made him sure that US forces would not launch an attack.
On Thursday, former president Mohammad Khatami warned that Iran was faced with “great threats.”
Another former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, called two weeks ago for Iran to be alert in the face of “unprecedented” actions by arch foe the United States.
