Defense Minister Warns against Bombing Iran’s Nuclear Sites

Defense minister Ali Shamkhani said on Wednesday that the Islamic government will abandon Iran’s international commitments if nuclear facilities were targeted by the US or Israel. The US will continue to press in every way that we can to stop Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said. Iran aims at destroying the state of Israel with a missile attack, Israel’s foreign minister Silvan Shalom said. “If there is a military attack,” on Iran’s nuclear facilities, “that would mean that the IAEA has been collecting this information to prepare for an attack. Naturally, after such an action, it would be necessary to renounce all of our nuclear commitments,” defense minister rear admiral Ali Shamkhani told the government’s official news agency IRNA on Monday, noting that the UN International Atomic Energy Agency has “every detail of Iran’s nuclear program.” While IAEA’s investigation of Iran’s nuclear program continues, the US and Israel accuse Iran of masking a nuclear weapons program. “The United States and the other enemies of the Islamic Republic must know that we will respond to a military action against our country with all our force,” Shamkhani said, threatening that the retaliation would be “unlimited by time and space.” Shamkhani’s comments came a day after US Secretary of State Colin Powell met in Washington with Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom. “Iran is the country that has announced that one missile toward Israel will destroy the Jewish state. So we should be concerned about the Iranians’ efforts to develop nuclear weapon,” Shalom said. The US Administration has been warning the International community about Iran’s nuclear weapons capability for last three-and-half years, Powell pointed out, standing in a press conference alongside Shalom. “The US will continue to press in every way that we can, use all of the diplomatic and other resources at our disposal, to make sure the international community stands unified behind the effort to stop Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons development, or worse, acquiring a nuclear weapon,” Powell said.