Iran warns against foreign military attack

Xinhua, November 9, 2011

Iran's Majlis (parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani said here Tuesday that the western governments' policy toward Iran amounts to psychological warfare, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Despite Tehran's repeated insistence on the "peaceful" nature of its nuclear program, the western countries continue to raise concerns that it will use the uranium enrichment to make nuclear weapons.

Recent tensions between Iran and the West over the sensitive issue have raised concerns that the United States and Israel may consider a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that any military strike against Iran would be a serious mistake.

Commenting on an Israeli warning that a military operation against Tehran was becoming more likely, Lavrov said such action would be fraught with unpredictable consequences.

The only way to solve Iran's nuclear problem was to resume talks between Iran and the six world powers, including the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, he said.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday dismissed recent media reports that his government was gearing to approve a military strike against Iran's nuclear sites, saying that a decision to that end has not yet been reached.

The Ha'aretz daily reported last week that Barak and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were lobbying cabinet ministers in an effort to secure a majority for an attack on Iran, despite assessments that an Iranian response could potentially wreak havoc on Israel.

Dismissing the report as "baseless," Barak said that the public discourse on the issue has "brought about an unfounded and superfluous (media) campaign of intimidation."