(AKI) - Iran will attack Israel if Washington decides to launch a military strike against the country over its nuclear programme, the Iranian deputy interior minister Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr said on Thursday. "If the United States should attack us we will launch tens of thousands of missiles able to strike US targets and destroy Israel," said Zolghadr, a former commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, the Pasdaran. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel, a state which is not recognized by the Islamic Republic."The United States at this time is trying to weaken the Islamic Republic by attempting to create instability and crises," the government official added.
Iran is facing a second wave of UN sanctions if it does not halt in the coming month sensitive nuclear work which world powers fear is aimed at building nuclear weapons. Washington, which has lobbied for strong punitive measures within the UN Security Council, has not ruled out military intervention if sanctions fail to curb Tehran's atomic ambitions.