|
Iran's Defense Minister: Counter-Strike Plan Ready
FNA
 Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi on Tuesday stressed
preparedness of the country's Armed Forces to repel possible military attacks on Iran, saying that Tehran has already defined the necessary strategies and drawn defensive plans to confront enemy invasion.
Speaking to reporters before leaving Tehran for the Omani capital city of Muscat on Tuesday, Vahidi noted intensified war rhetoric by senior US
military officials against Iran, and said, "Of course, the Islamic Republic Armed Forces are always ready and have already readied crushing, defensive plans to defend the great nation (of Iran) and
their dear homeland, which will make enemies regret (their attack)."
"Planning for an attack against an independent nation and state as well as the threat of attack
against other states in the third millennium are clear violation of the UN chapter," Vahidi stated.
The remarks by the Iranian minister came after Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen
said Sunday the United States has a plan in place to attack Iran, if it is necessary.
"Military actions have been on the table and remain on the table," Mullen, the highest-ranking US
military officer, told NBC's "Meet the Press".
"I hope we don't get to that, but it's an important option, and it's one that's well understood," he said.
But Mullen said attacking Iran would not be the best option Washington seeks "not just for the consequences of the action itself, but the things that could result after the fact."
Meantime, Vahidi lambasted the United Nations for keeping mum about the US officials' threatening remarks, and said the world body's silence and inaction vis-à-vis Washington's threats
against Tehran prove that the UN is inefficient, has an unjust structure and merely serves the illegitimate interests of the global powers.
Israel and its close ally the United States accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, while they have never presented any corroborative document to substantiate their allegations. Both
Washington and Tel Aviv possess advanced weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads.
Iran vehemently denies the charges, insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Iranian officials have, in return, warned that the country would target Israel and its worldwide interests in case it comes under attack by the Tel Aviv. Iran has also warned that it could close
the strategic Strait of Hormuz if it became the target of a military attack over its nuclear program.
Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the strategic Persian Gulf waterway, is a major oil shipping route.
Meantime, a recent study by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a prestigious American think tank, has found that a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities "is
unlikely" to delay the country's program.
The ISIS study also cautioned that an attack against Iran would backfire by compelling the country to acquire nuclear weaponry.
A recent study by a fellow at Harvard's Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, Caitlin Talmadge, warned that Iran could use mines as well as missiles to block the strait, and that "it could take
many weeks, even months, to restore the full flow of commerce, and more time still for the oil markets to be convinced that stability had returned."
|
