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Iran to target ’32 US bases’ if attacked

AFP, Tehran
Iran will target "32 US bases and the heart of Israel’ if it is attacked, the Ears news agency quoted an aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying yesterday.
"If America and Israel shoot any bullets and missiles against our country. Iranian armed forces will target the heart of Israel and 32 US bases in the region before the dust from this attack has settled," Mojtaba Zolnoor said.
Zolnoor is Khamenei's deputy representative for the elite Revolutionary Guards, the force which controls Iran's more potent weaponry, particularly its longer-range missiles capable of striking Israel and US bases in the Gulf.
The United States and its top regional ally Israel have never ruled out attacking Iran over its nuclear drive, which the West fears could be aimed at making nuclear weapons.
There has been concern an attack against Iran could be imminent after it emerged Israel had carried out manoeuvres in Greece
that were effectively practice runs for a potential strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.
Government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham on Saturday dismissed speculation that Iran risked being attacked by the United States, saying that a military strike would be "craziness."
"I don't think that such craziness and nonsense will prevail or is doable militarily," he added.
The Islamic republic has repeatedly warned of a crushing response to any aggression against its soil.
Iran rejects the Western accusations and insists its nuclear programme is aimed solely at generating energy for a growing population whose fossil fuel reserves will eventually run out.
Tensions over the nuclear standoff have surged again in recent days after Iran test-fired a broadside of missiles -• including one it says brings Israel within range -- in war games that provoked international concern.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned that if the United States or its regional ally
Israel attacked Iran "then our response to them will be harsh and devastating."
"Of course, the Zionist regime and the United States do not have the capability to involve themselves in another crisis," he said in a speech on Friday reported by the official IRNA news agency on Saturday.
On Wednesday, Tehran said it test-fired its Shahab-3 missile -- the longest-range weapon in its arsenal -- and eight other missiles, adding it fired more missiles on Thursday in land manouevresat night and naval war games by day.
Mottaki described the missile firing as a show of "Iran's capabili-tiesand ability in the military field."
Meanwhile diplomatic efforts aimed at solving the five-year nuclear standoff have also continued.
World powers last month presented Iran with a package aimed at ending the nuclear crisis by offering Tehran technological incentives in exchange for suspending its sensi-tive uranium enrichment programme.
Iran has proposed its own package -- a more all embracing attempt to solve the problems of the world including the nuclear standoff --and has made much of the common ground between the two proposals.
Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili is to meet EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana - who leads the talks on behalf of world powers -- in Geneva on July 19 in their latest effort to break the deadlock. Iranian officials said.
Elham again insisted that Iran would not give up enriching uranium, saying "no issue depriving our people of their rights can be debated. We will never accept any preconditions for negotiations."
Western powers fear Tehran could use the process to make a nuclear weapon but Iran rejects the accusations insisting its nuclear programme is aimed solely at generatingenergy for a growing population.
Indeed, Elham said it was the world powers who had changed their position and implied he believed they had dropped their demand for a suspension.