MOSCOW, Feb 8, (Agencies): Iran is capable of carrying out military strikes on US interests all around the world if the Islamic Republic is attacked by the United States, Iran’s ambassador to Moscow said on Wednesday.
The United States has tried to force Tehran to scrap sensitive nuclear work by imposing sanctions targeting Iran’s central bank and giving US banks new powers to freeze Iranian government assets.
Iran’s ambassador to Moscow said that the United States would be making a serious mistake, akin to suicide, if it risked a military strike on OPEC’s No. 2 oil exporter.
Washington has announced no such plans, but has said a military option is always on the table if Iran cannot be otherwise prevented from developing atomic weapons.
“The Americans know what kind of country Iran is. They are well aware of our people’s unity,” Iranian ambassador Seyed Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi told a news conference in Moscow.
“And that’s why Iran is fully able to deliver retaliatory strikes on the United States anywhere in the world,” he said, speaking through an interpreter.
“Even if it attacks, we have a list of counter actions. (The United States) would be disappointed with their huge mistake.”
Iran has increasingly issued threatening statements against the West in recent weeks as tension has increased over its uranium enrichment programme, which it moved last month to a mountain bunker better protected from possible air strikes.
Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful while Western powers fear Tehran is trying to build a nuclear bomb.
“The issue of a military attack from America on the Islamic Republic of Iran has been on the agenda for several years,” said Sajjadi, adding that Iran would never strike first.
Iran has warned its response to any such strike would be “painful”, threatening to target Israel and US bases in the Gulf, along with closing the Strait of Hormuz used by one third of the world’s seaborne oil traffic.
Russia, the world’s biggest energy producer, opposes further UN Security Council sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear programme and has sharply criticised US and European Union sanctions.
More than two-thirds of Iran’s lawmakers have endorsed a statement calling for cutting off oil sales to the European Union before EU sanctions on their country go into effect.
The statement, which was read Wednesday in an open session of parliament broadcast on state radio, said “in the case of the continuation of illogical policies” by the EU, Iran will look for alternative customers for its oil before the European embargo goes into effect in the summer. The statement was signed by 200 of the parliament’s 290 lawmakers.
The EU sanctions are part of the West’s efforts to pressure Iran over its controversial nuclear program.
On Saturday, Iran’s oil minister said the country would “definitely” cut off oil to “hostile” European countries.
Retaliate
Iran will not ask Lebanon’s Hezbollah to retaliate if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities, the leader of the militant group said Tuesday.
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told thousands of supporters by video link that in case of such an Israeli attack on Iran, his leadership would make a decision about a response. Hezbollah is funded by Iran.
The United States Europe and Israel charge Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Israel considers Iran to be its most dangerous enemy and has vowed to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Many fear that if Israel attacks Iran, it would ignite a Mideast war, starting with Hezbollah retaliation.
“There is speculation about what wound happen if Israel bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities,” Nasrallah said. “I tell you that the Iranian leadership will not ask Hezbollah to do anything. On that day, we will sit, think and decide what we will do.”
Hezbollah holds the balance of power in Lebanon’s coalition government.
The Iran-backed group has been in conflict with Israel since 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon. Israel pulled out in 2000 according to a border drawn by the UN, but Lebanon says Israel is still occupying some territory.
In 2006, Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war that killed about 1,200 people in Lebanon and 160 in Israel. Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at Israel.
Nasrallah also denied US charges that his group is involved in drug smuggling and money laundering.
In December, the Obama administration imposed sanctions on two Lebanese-Colombian men and dozens of companies they run for allegedly laundering money on behalf of Mexican and Colombian drug cartels.
US officials said that one of the companies was tied to an alleged drug kingpin who has been accused of running a money-laundering scheme on behalf of Hezbollah.
US federal authorities said Lebanese financial institutions wired more than $300 million to the United States in a laundering scheme they said used the US financial system to benefit Hezbollah.
The US accusations came after an indictment in federal court in Virginia accused fugitive Ayman Joumaa of leading a drug conspiracy that provided income for Hezbollah, which has been designated by the US State Department as a terrorist organization since 1997.
“We do not deal in drugs because it is religiously prohibited,” Nasrallah said.
The black-turbaned Hezbollah leader said charges about drug dealing are “lies and fabrications, and the same regarding money laundering.” He said his group does not run businesses in Lebanon or abroad.
He said Hezbollah that Iran funds his group and they are not short of money. Iran reportedly has given Hezbollah billions of dollars since 1982.
Scrutiny
The West’s increasing pressure on Iran has meant scrutiny for South African businesses that operate in the Middle Eastern nation accused of having nuclear ambitions.
South African-Iranian political ties have long been close, and that has meant close business ties. A politically connected South African telecommunications company has been accused of pushing Pretoria to support Iran’s nuclear power program. A South African energy and chemicals company is reviewing its Iranian investments. Iranian oil makes up nearly a third of South Africa’s oil imports.
Iran denies charges from the United States and its allies that it is trying to produce an atomic weapon and says its nuclear programs are for energy and other peaceful needs.
South Africa, the only nation in the world to have voluntarily surrendered a nuclear weapons program, says all nations should have the right to exploit atomic energy’s peaceful potential. South Africa has uranium reserves and its own nuclear power program.
Foreign affairs department spokesman Clayson Monyela said this week that South Africa has told Iran that it is ready to help any country that wants to follow its lead and give up nuclear weapons.
South Africa began disarming in the waning years of apartheid in the early 1990s, and has submitted itself to International Atomic Energy Agency verification that it dismantled its nuclear weapons.
Thomas Wheeler, a retired South African diplomat, said Iran’s “problems would go away” if, as South Africa did, it allowed the international agency full access.
Instead, Iranians “create the suspicion that they’re up to something,” said Wheeler, who now works for the independent South African Institute of International Affairs.
Wheeler said South African-Iranian ties are close, but complicated. He said Iran supported the ANC when it was an anti-apartheid movement, but also supplied oil to the white minority government both before and after the shah’s fall.
On Monday, trying to pressure Iran to divert from what the West sees as a drive toward a nuclear bomb, the United States gave US banks additional powers to freeze assets linked to the Iranian government and close loopholes that officials say Iran has used to move money despite earlier restrictions imposed by the US and Europe. In January, the European Union announced it would ban Iranian crude oil imports starting in July. The US doesn’t buy oil from Iran.
Monyela, of the South African foreign affairs department, said that so far, Western moves against Iran have not affected South African policy. But he did not rule out a possible shift.
South Africa has often expressed concerns that the West is hiding its true intentions when it calls for steps against a developing country. South Africa has complained, for example, that a UN resolution calling for protecting civilians in Libya was misused. South Africa supported the resolution, then argued that a NATO bombing campaign that followed amounted to an illegal, violent attempt at regime change.
While diplomats may be slow to act for political reasons, South African business may have little room to maneuver. The US move on banks could make it hard to pay Iran for its oil. And having close business ties with Iran might make it hard to do business in the US and Europe.