DUBAI, June 2, (Agencies): Iran has warned the United States not to resort to military action against it, saying US bases in the region were vulnerable to the Islamic Republic’s missiles, state media reported on Saturday.
The comments by a senior Iranian military commander were an apparent response to US officials who have said Washington was ready to use military force to stop what it suspects is Iran’s goal to develop a nuclear weapons capability.
World powers held talks with Iran in Baghdad on May 23-24 in an attempt to find a diplomatic solution to their concerns over its nuclear programme, which Tehran maintains is entirely peaceful. Another round was set for June 18-19 in Moscow.
“The politicians and the military men of the United States are well aware of the fact that all of their bases (in the region) are within the range of Iran’s missiles and in any case ... are highly vulnerable,” Press TV reported Brigadier-General Yahya Rahim Safavi as saying.
Safavi is a military adviser to Iran’s clerical Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and was until 2007 the commander in chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the force that protects Iran’s Islamic system of governance.
He also warned that Iranian missiles could reach all parts of Israel but played down any possibility of military action against his country as “faint” because of the current economic condition of the United States.
Analysts say Iranian military officials use such fiery rhetoric as a way of keeping the West on edge over the possible disruption to global oil supplies in the event of US or Israeli military action.
Tehran has previously threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz — a vital crude shipping lane — if it is attacked, which experts say would result in a spike in the price of oil and could hit the US economy as it seeks to recover from the financial crisis.
Last month the US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, said plans for a possible military strike on Iran were ready and the option was “fully available.”
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said Iran needed to take steps to curb its nuclear activities during the next round of talks in Moscow. Israel is sceptical any progress can be made and has accused Tehran of simply buying time.
Leak
US Senator John McCain on Saturday accused President Barack Obama’s administration of leaking details of a reported cyber attack on Iran and other secret operations to bolster the president’s image in an election year.
“Again we see these leaks to the media about ongoing operations, which is incredibly disturbing. Doesn’t this give some benefit to our adversaries?” McCain told reporters in Singapore, where he was attending a summit on Asian security.
McCain, who was defeated by Obama in the 2008 presidential election, said there had been ill-advised leaks previously that revealed details of the US raid last year that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and other operations.
“We know the leaks have to come from the administration. And so we’re at the point where perhaps we need an investigation,” said McCain, the most senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“So this is kind of a pattern in order to hype the national security credentials of the president and every administration does it. But I think this administration has taken it to a new level.”
The New York Times reported Friday that Obama accelerated cyberattacks on Iran’s nuclear program using the Stuxnet virus, and expanded the assault even after the virus accidentally made its way onto the Internet in 2010.
The operation, begun under president George W. Bush and codenamed “Olympic Games,” is the first known sustained US cyberattack ever launched on another country, employing malicious code developed with Israel, according to the Times.
McCain said he believed the US president had authority to launch such an attack.
“But I also believe that it would be helpful if he talked to a select few leaders of Congress. Most presidents have done this,” he said.
The White House “never” briefed lawmakers on the assault, he said.
Space center
Iran is finishing construction of a new space center that will allow it to soon launch more domestically made satellites into orbit, the country’s defense minister said Saturday.
The remarks by Gen Ahmad Vahidi’s were the first confirmation that Iran is building a new space facility amid the standoff with the West over Iran’s controversial nuclear program. The West is concerned the program masks efforts to make atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies, insisting it’s only for peaceful purposes.
Iran’s ambitious space plans have also raised concerns in the West because of their possible military applications - the same rocket technology used to send satellites into orbit can also be retooled to make intercontinental warheads.
Vahidi, in comments carried by the official IRNA news agency, said the first satellite to be launched from the new center will be the Tolo. It will be carried into orbit by the Iranian-made Simorgh light booster rocket, he said.
Vahidi didn’t say where the new facility, which has been named after the Islamic Republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is located.
Iran already has a major satellite launch complex near Semnan, 125 miles (200 kms) east of Tehran, and another space center - a satellite monitoring facility - outside Mahdasht, about 40 miles (70 kms) west of the Iranian capital.
“Some 80 percent of the actual construction of the new space center has been completed,” Vahidi said, adding that the new facility will send “satellites from Iran, the regional countries and the world of Islam into orbit in the near future.”
Iran’s decades-old space program is a key aspect of its efforts to achieve technological prowess similar to that of world powers. In February 2010, Iran announced it had successfully launched a menagerie of animals - including a mouse, two turtles and worms - into space on a research rocket.
Iran launched its first commercial satellite in 2005 on a Russian rocket in a joint project with Moscow, which is said to be a partner in transferring space technology to Iran. That same year, the government said it had allocated $500 million for space projects for the next five years.
Iran’s lofty space plans also include putting a man in orbit within less than a decade, despite the expense and technological challenges involved.
Iran says it wants to put its own satellites into orbit to monitor natural disasters in the earthquake-prone nation and improve its telecommunications. Iranian officials also point to America’s use of satellites to monitor conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and say they need similar capabilities for their security.
Tests
Iran’s nuclear ambitions will again be in the spotlight when the UN atomic watchdog meets next week to discuss if Iranian scientists have used a military base for illicit nuclear weapons tests.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a damning report last November saying Iranian scientists had possibly carried out weapons tests at the base in Parchin, near Tehran, since 2003.
A demand for fast and unconditional access to the base will form the crux of discussions when the IAEA’s 35-member board meets behind closed doors at its Vienna headquarters for a week from Monday.
The agency’s chief inspector Herman Nackaerts on Wednesday showed satellite images dated May 25 showing two small buildings at Parchin that had been recently razed to the ground, according to Western diplomats.
Iran has persistently denied its nuclear programme is for anything but civilian purposes, but some Western powers suspect Iran is trying to cover up nuclear tests there.
The developments come amid mounting impatience from nations including the United States and Israel over Iran’s perceived stalling to allow full inspections and oversight of its nuclear programme.
On Wednesday, the US ambassador to Israel said Washington would not continue fruitless dialogue forever and said military action remained an option, along with other economic and diplomatic tools.
Meanwhile, a Texas couple accused of violating a US trade embargo with Iran also face federal charges that they defrauded government and private health care programs of more than $1.5 million.
Dr Hossein Lahiji and his wife, Najmeh Vahid Lahiji, a lawyer who ran his office, allegedly sought reimbursement for services not performed, including when Lahiji was travelling in Iran, according to a new indictment returned Thursday.
They are charged with health care fraud and conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Prosecutors say Lahiji reported treating as many as 117 patients a day and on multiple occasions billing more hours than exist in a day.
At least twice, Lahiji was travelling in Iran when someone in his office provided a chemotherapy injection used to treat prostate cancer that the Food and Drug Administration says must be supervised by a physician, the indictment said. Lahiji billed as if he had performed it himself.
Lahiji placed patients “at risk of physical danger,” according to the indictment.
The couple also was indicted in Oregon in 2010 for giving more than $1.8 million to the Oregon branch of an Iranian children’s charity that sent the money to Iran. Prosecutors say the transactions violated the trade embargo against Iran. Their donations were used to make investments in Iran that they retained control over, according to the indictment.
They were charged with defrauding the US Treasury and money laundering. They have denied the allegations. Their attorneys did not immediately return calls for comment Friday. Trial in that case was scheduled for early next year.
Prosecutors say the Texas and Oregon charges are not related.