IRAN/RUSSIA: Iranian Leader Khamenei warns U.S. not to attack Iran, while Russia asks for a positive response to proposals on resolving the nuclear stand-off.

Record ID: 313779

  • Title: IRAN/RUSSIA: Iranian Leader Khamenei warns U.S. not to attack Iran, while Russia asks for a positive response to proposals on resolving the nuclear stand-off.
  • Date: 8th February 2007
  • Summary: EXTERIOR RUSSIA'S FOREIGN MINISTRY BUILDING/ ENTRANCE
  • Embargoed: 23rd February 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA4HE6ENOJJ05P34LWYZ4D474Z2
  • Story Text: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei warned that U.S. military action against Iran would endanger U.S. interests around the world; while Iranian and Russian officials met in Moscow to discuss Russian proposals for a resolution to the international stand-off over the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme. Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Thursday (February 8) that the Islamic Republic would target U.S. interests around the world if it came under attack.
    Iran and the United States are locked in a dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme, which Washington says is being used to build atomic bombs. U.S. officials say they want diplomacy to end the standoff but have not ruled out force if that fails.
    In news footage of Khamenei's speech to Iranian air force personnel, he is quoted as saying:
    "The enemies (U.S.) know well that any aggression will lead to a reaction from all sides in the Iranian nation on the aggressors and their interests around the world, and we believe that no one will make that unwise and wrong move to endanger their country and interests but some say that the U.S. president is not the type who acts based on calculations and thinks about the consequences of his action."
    U.S. President George Bush has said he has no intention of invading Iran, though he has pledged to step up pressure on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear programme and what Washington calls Iran's meddling in Iraq.
    Tehran insists its nuclear programme is purely civilian and says it is not backing militants in Iraq.
    At a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and a special envoy of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Moscow on Thursday, Russia urged the Islamic Republic to take on board new proposals aimed at resolving the dispute.
    "The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, has many times underlined the necessity of a resolution (of the Iranian nuclear issue). Through negotiations, and in accordance with his orders, the Russian side has taken steps and is continuing to go in this direction. We have sent appropriate signals with our ideas to Tehran and we hope that during today's talks we can consider the reaction of your leadership on these signals," said Lavrov, at the start of talks with Tehran's special envoy Ali Akbar Velayati.
    Velayati, in Moscow on a one-day visit, later met Igor Ivanov, head of Russia's National Security Council.
    On Wednesday (February 7), Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said he planned to hold talks with Western officials in Germany, in the first such contacts since the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iran in December.
    Larijani did not say whom he would meet at the February 9 to 11 security conference in Munich or what would be discussed. He has previously said he will not meet U.S. officials, who insist they will only talk once Iran stops enriching uranium.
    German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates are expected to attend.
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