AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Tehran, Iran: A top Iranian military official has vowed that the Islamic republic will “repress with force” any attacker, national media reported Thursday. “We are not seeking war, but will repress with force the aggressors regardless of who they are or what position they are in,” army chief general Abdolrahim Moussavi was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.
Any attacker, he said, would suffer an “unforgettable” response.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued barely veiled threats of a military assault on Iran should diplomacy aimed at limiting Iran's disputed nuclear programme fail.
“The right to self-defence does not necessarily require a UN Security Council resolution,” Rice said, noting that the United States had gone to war in the Balkans without one.
The UN Security Council has given Iran until April 28 to return to a freeze of enrichment work, but Tehran appears set to let the deadline pass without complying.
The regime insists it only wants to make reactor fuel, but enrichment can also be extended to make the fissile core of a nuclear weapon.
