20 September 2007
A senior Iranian military commander has said that his country is prepared to bomb Israel in the event of a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “We have drawn a plan so that in the case of this regime's potential foolishness, Iran's bombers could strike Israel in return,'' Mohammad Alavi, deputy head of air force operations, was quoted as saying by the state-controlled ‘Fars’ news agency. Alavi also played down Israel's military capabilities. "Israel's talk of an air attack is just a psychological war, since we reject the regime's ability to mount an air attack on Iran," he said. "Israel is not an entity that can pose a serious threat to Iran because it does not have the real ability."
White House press spokeswoman Dana Perino called Alavi's comment “unhelpful'' and said, according to the AP news agency, “It is not constructive and it almost seems provocative. Israel doesn't seek a war with its neighbors. And we all are seeking, under the UN Security Council resolutions, is for Iran to comply with its obligations.”
Iran does not recognize Israel. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeatedly called Israel “the flag of Satan” and said that it should be “wiped off the map”.
Meanwhile, former US president Jimmy Carter said that he did not believe that Iran posed an immediate threat to Israel. Speaking on Wednesday at Emory University, Carter, who brokered the 1979 Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, said that Israel's superior military power and distance from Iran likely were enough to discourage an actual attack. "Iran is quite distant from Israel. I think it would be almost inconceivable that Iran would commit suicide by launching one or two missiles of any kind against the nation of Israel," Carter told his audience.
Read about the WJC's campaign to Stop the Iranian Threat