Iran warns to set fire to Israel, US if attacked

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran warned on Tuesday it would "set fire" to Israel and US forces in response to any attack over its nuclear drive, as the world's



leading industrial powers told Tehran to freeze uranium enrichment.

Leaders of the Group of Eight nations at a summit in Japan urged Iran to fully comply with UN Security Council resolutions "in particular to suspend



all enrichment-related activities."

They also urged Tehran to respond positively to a new package by six major powers to bring a peaceful end to the five-year-old nuclear standoff



between Iran and the international community.

In Kuala Lumpur, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad downplayed the threat of an attack, saying it would be "political suicide" for US



President George W Bush - whose term of office ends in January. He also said that the Iranian people stood ready to defend their country in the event



of any attempt to close down the nation's nuclear programme.

"Any finger that will trigger the bullet, the Iranian people will cut it," he told a Press conference at a summit of developing nations.

"The first US shot on Iran would set the United States' vital interests in the world on fire," said Ali Shirazi, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's



representative to the naval forces of the elite Revolutionary Guards.

"Tel Aviv and the US fleet in the Persian Gulf would be the targets that would be set on fire in Iran's crushing response," he said, according to the



Fars news agency.

Shirazi said "the Zionist regime is pressuring the White House leaders to plan a military assault on Iran" and Iran would react "if they commit such a



stupidity."

His comments came as the Revolutionary Guards embarked on a new round of war games to sharpen their combat readiness amid continued tensions



in the nuclear crisis.

The Great Prophet III manoeuvres by the missile and naval sections of the Revolutionary Guards are aimed at "improving the combat capability" of



the forces, Fars reported. Iran has responded to an offer from world powers to end the nuclear crisis and diplomats are analysing what is said to be a



complex answer from Tehran.

However the French Foreign Ministry confirmed that Iran does not say in its response it is prepared to freeze enrichment.

Iran's ambassador to Britain Rassoul Movahedian told the official IRNA news agency that the West was "just wasting its time" by insisting that



Tehran should suspend enrichment.

At the G-8 summit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the world powers planned to send EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana back to Iran to



discuss "the differences between their latest proposals and the ones that were already on the table."

Ahmadinejad also called for US military bases across the world to be "eradicated". He called on the major powers to "withdraw from animosity and



hostile actions against us".

The Iranian leader reiterated that his country would not pull back from its nuclear ambitions and called on Washington to withdraw its troops from



Iraq.

In a letter to the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun published Tuesday, Ahmadinejad lashed out at Group of Eight leaders and rejected calls for



Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.

The looming end of a single superpower world entered around the US after World War II is apparent to all countries, the Iranian president said.

"If they are worried about (the future) of human beings, they have to accept the change and straighten themselves," he added.