Iran to give Crushing Response to Possible Attacks: minister

25 October 2007

Kuwait City-Iran's Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi here on Wednesday warned against any possible military attack against Iran, promising that Iran's response would be crushing.

"Any country or power which invades Iran will face a crushing response. We will defend our security and our country in the strongest way in case of any possible military attack," he added.

His remarks were made during a press conference held on the margins of the fourth meeting of interior ministers of Iraq neighboring countries.

The meeting began with participation of interior ministers from Iran, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait as well as Egypt and Bahrain on Tuesday to discuss the security situation in Iraq.

Asked if US was likely to carry out military action against Iran, Pour-Mohammadi said, "If you ask US authorities, they will tell you that there is a remote possibility for such an action since both US domestic and international status would not allow Washington to invade Iran."

"US is well aware that it might be easy to start such an action against Iran but ending that would not be then in the hands of US officials. Such action will definitely end up in US collapse," Pour-Mohammadi warned.

Stressing that regional states have explicitly voiced their opposition to such an action, the Iranian minister said that "officials of regional countries including Kuwait have decisively announced" that they would not assist any country enjoying hostile attitude toward Iran.

"We are sure that regional states, by no means, would help the enemies of Iran," Pour-Mohammadi added.