Iran dismisses 'stupid' US strike threat

Iran said yesterday that a US military strike against it would be a strategic blunder, but brushed aside tough talk from Washington as psychological warfare rather than a real threat.

Iran’s Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi said: “The Americans are stupid, but not so much to make the same mistake which they made in Tabas,” referring to a failed US military operation in 1980 to rescue hostages held in Iran, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

US President George Bush has said that his administration will not rule out the possibility of using military force against Iran over its controversial nuclear program, and Vice President Dick Cheney has said that Iran “is right at the top of the list” of world trouble spots.

IRNA quoted Yunesi as claiming that US planes had been detected over Iran as “part of the espionage which they carry out” and warned that “every action has a reaction.” He added that the planes were “nothing new.”

Yunesi also said US commandos had not entered Iran for reconnaissance missions.

“We are eagerly looking for the Americans commandos to come to Iran since they are chicks which would rapidly be picked up by our eagles,” he said, according to IRNA.

Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice made clear that American differences with Iran go well beyond its nuclear program, saying that it was “really hard to find common ground with a government that thinks Israel should be extinguished.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi responded yesterday, saying that Iran “has always said that Tel Aviv decides US policies and that the Zionist lobby is very powerful in the United States.”

Asefi said top US administration officials did not find any friends around the world when they issued threats suggesting that they may be considering military action against Iran.

::Iran will inaugurate a uranium ore concentrate production plant near the southern port city of Bandar Abbas within a year, Iran’s nuclear chief said yesterday.

Gholamreza Aghazadeh was quoted by state-run radio as saying the Bandar Abbas Yellowcake Production Plant would open during the next Iranian calendar year, which begins March 21.

The nuclear facility will process ore extracted from uranium mine into uranium ore concentrate, known as yellowcake. The processing is part of the early stages before actual enrichment of uranium.

Uranium enriched to low grades is used for fuel in nuclear reactors, but further enrichment makes it suitable for atomic bombs.