Iran Tuesday said it is dismissing Israeli threats of
an imminent attack against it, explaining that even some Israeli officials
realized such a "stupid" act would provoke "very severe
consequences."
"In our calculations, we aren't taking these claims very seriously because
we see them as hollow and baseless," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin
Mehmanparast told reporters in a weekly briefing.
"Even if some officials in the illegitimate regime (
Israel
)
want to carry out such a stupid action, there are those inside (the Israeli
government) who won't allow it because they know they would suffer very severe
consequences from such an act," he said.
Iran
's defense minister, General Ahmad Vahidi, was quoted by the ISNA news
agency saying that
Israel
"definitely doesn't have what it takes to endure
Iran
's
might and will."
He called the Israeli threats "a sign of weakness" by "brainless
leaders."
The comments were a response to bellicose rhetoric from Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in recent days suggesting
they were thinking more seriously of military action against Iranian nuclear
facilities.
"We are determined to prevent
Iran
from becoming nuclear (armed), and all the options are on the table. When we
say it, we mean it," Barak told Israeli radio last Thursday.
Israeli media have underlined the threat, reporting that a decision could be
made within weeks. They have also highlighted opposition to the idea by current
and former Israeli military officials.
The
U.S.
has recently multiplied visits by top officials to
Israel
in what appears to be an attempt to dissuade the Jewish state from targeting
the Islamic republic.
"We continue to believe there is time and space for diplomacy," White
House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday.
Israel
insists that
Iran
is on the point of developing nuclear weapons, and says it reserves the right
to act to prevent that.
The Jewish state has in the past launched air strikes to destroy nuclear
facilities in
Iraq
and, reportedly, in
Syria
to protect its own regional nuclear weapons monopoly, whose existence it
refuses to officially confirm.
Iran
says its nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful, civilian uses.
In the past couple of years it has ramped up uranium enrichment to a level just
a few steps short of military-grade fissile material, saying those stocks are
needed to create medical isotopes. It has also refused U.N. nuclear inspectors
access to suspect military installations.
Renewed negotiations between
Iran
and the five top U.N. Security Council powers, plus
Germany
,
have taken place this year. They have been downgraded after it became clear
they were in an impasse, but not ended.
In the meantime,
Iran
is suffering from increasingly tough
U.S.
and European Union economic sanctions that have crippled its all-important oil
exports.