18:57 | 2008-07-11


TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian cleric on Friday warned Israel and the United States that they would be made to regret any attack against Iran.


"You liar Israel and you liar the White House... if you want to make an invasion we will give you such a response that you will regret your move," Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani said in a Friday Prayers sermon here in Tehran today.

The United States and its main ally the Zionist regime have recently intensified threats against the Islamic Republic. Speculation that Israel may dare to bomb Iran has specially been on the rise since a big Israeli air drill last month.

In response to heightened war rhetoric by Tel Aviv and Washington, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday and Thursday successfully test fired new long- and mid-range missiles, including a Shahab 3, which can hit any target within a range of 2,000 km with a one-ton conventional warhead.

Meantime, Emami Kashani also shrugged off concerns about Iran's war games.

"There have been several comments about our missiles' tests, especially by the United States, and all of them are wrong," he said

"Unlike you (the US and Israel), we are having our military maneuvers inside our own territory, and this is an internationally acknowledged and legitimate move," Emami-Kashani said.

"Furthermore, the Islamic Republic has in the last three decades not violated (sovereignty and territorial integrity of) any country but in return was violated with US support," he added.

Emami-Kashani was referring to the 1980-1988 Iraqi imposed war on Iran, where the US supported the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

"We have a clear (territorial) framework but where is your framework? We have no history in invading other countries but what is your (US and Israel) history? Invasions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine," the Ayatollah said.

"Iran does not recognize Israel because it is an occupier... But Iran does not want to get involved in a war with it and does not want to shoot its missiles to Tel Aviv," the cleric said.

"We are just saying, if you hit us, we are capable to hit back and that is quite legitimate," the leaders' aide warned.

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