Iran’s Revolutionary Guards CORPS (IRGC) said yesterday that Iran would strike Israel’s nuclear facilities if the Jewish state attacked it, state TV reported.
“If the Zionist Regime [Israel] attacks Iran, we will surely strike its nuclear facilities with our missile capabilities,” Mohammad Ali Jafari, Guards commander-in-chief, told Iran’s Arabic language al-Alam TV.
The Revolutionary Guards are the ideologically driven wing of Iran’s military with air, sea and land capabilities, and a separate command structure to regular units.
Iranian leaders often dismiss talk of a possible strike by Israel, saying it is not in a position to threaten Iran, the world’s fifth-biggest oil exporter. They say Iran would respond to any attack by targeting US interests and Israel.
“We are not responsible for this regime and other enemies’ foolishness ... If they strike Iran, our answer will be firm and precise,” state TV quoted Jafari as saying.
The US, Israel and their Western allies fear that Iran is enriching uranium with the aim of producing nuclear weapons and have not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the row.
Iran says it is pursuing only a nuclear power generation program.
Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear power, has repeatedly described Iran’s nuclear program as a threat to its existence. Iran refuses to recognize Israel.
Jafari said Israel was entirely within the reach of Iran.
“Our missile capability puts all of the Zionist regime [Israel] within Iran’s reach to attack,” Jafari said. “The Zionist regime is too small to threaten Iran.”
Military experts say Iran rarely reveals enough detail about its new military equipment to determine its military capabilities.
Israel has so far quietly acceded to Washington’s strategy of talking to Tehran about curtailing its sensitive nuclear work.
Israel believes that a multi-level missile shield underwritten by the US would protect the country against possible missile attacks.
Jafari said such a shield could only protect Israel “in a limited way.”
“But they will have no answer when Iran bombards them [and] sends a great number of its missiles,” he said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in May that Iran had tested a missile that defense analysts say could hit Israel and US bases in the Gulf. Washington said the test was a “step in the wrong direction” to remove concerns over its nuclear work.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, conduit for about 40 percent of globally traded oil, if it is attacked. The US military says it will prevent any such action.
Military experts say Iranian missiles often draw on technology from China, North Korea and other countries.
Israel has three German-made submarines that are widely assumed to carry nuclear missiles.
One of the submarines sailed from the Mediterranean, via the Suez Canal, to Israel’s Red Sea port of Eilat early this month, seen as a signal to Iran of the long reach of its arsenal.
Jafari said Iran “was not scared” of Israel’s military capabilities.
RISK REMAINS: An official said that with the US presidential elections so close, it is unclear if China would hold war games or keep its reaction to angry words The Ministry of National Defense said it was “on alert” as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group to Taiwan’s south yesterday amid concerns in Taiwan about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games. The ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific. The military is keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an
RESILIENCE: Once the system is operational, there would be no need to worry about the risks posed by disasters or other emergencies on communication systems, an official said Taiwan would have 24-hour access to low Earth orbit satellites by the end of this month through service provided by Eutelsat OneWeb as part of the nation’s effort to enhance signal resilience, a Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) official said yesterday. Earlier this year the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which partnered with Chunghwa Telecom on a two-year project to boost signal resilience throughout the nation, said it reached a milestone when it made contact with OneWeb’s satellites half of the time. It expects to have the capability to maintain constant contact with the satellites and have nationwide coverage by the end
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
The military detected a record 153 Chinese military aircraft around the nation, the Ministry of National Defense announced today, after China held a day of large-scale drills yesterday. The aircraft were spotted in the 25-hour period until 6am today, the ministry said in a statement — the most for a single day. Beijing deployed fighter jets, drones, warships and coast guard boats to encircle Taiwan yesterday, with Taiwan responding by dispatching "appropriate forces" and placing its outlying islands on heightened alert. The ministry typically records the numbers of Chinese warplanes and warships operating around Taiwan in 24-hour periods from 6am to 6am the