Iran to reply swiftly to any Israeli attack

Tehran: Iran and its Revolutionary Guards will respond swiftly if Israel attacked the Islamic Republic, which is embroiled in a nuclear dispute with the West, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

Mohammad Ali Hosseini also said Iran was pressing ahead with plans to expand its programme to enrich uranium, which the West and Israel say Iran is using to make nuclear warheads despite Tehran's denials.

Israeli officials have commented recently that the country's military would consider bombing Iranian nuclear facilities to thwart what it has described as an Iranian nuclear weapons programme.

"If Israel takes such a stupid step and attacks, the answer of Iran and its Revolutionary Guard will be rapid, firm and destructive and it will be given in a few seconds," he told a news conference.

The Guards are an ideologically-driven wing of Iran's military with a separate command structure to regular units.

Israel bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981 to prevent former President Saddam Hussain from making atomic weapons, and some analysts have speculated that Israel could consider similar action against Iran if it felt threatened.

Hosseini downplayed the possibility of such an attack, suggesting that Israeli bluster stemmed from the current government's "very fragile" political situation.

"The situation and capability of the Zionist regime are far too small to threaten Iran," Hosseini said.

Experts say knocking out Iran's nuclear facilities would be a far tougher prospect than it was in Iraq partly because Iranian sites are spread out and heavily protected.

Israeli officials have said they want the international community, which has been pushing Iran to halt its sensitive atomic work, to resolve the dispute through diplomatic means.

But so far Iran has not responded to UN demands to halt uranium enrichment, the part of Iran's programme which most worries the West because it can be used to make fuel for nuclear power stations or material for warheads.