Iran
and its Revolutionary Guards will respond swiftly if Israel
attacked the Islamic Republic, which is embroiled in a nuclear dispute with the West, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday.
Mohammad Ali Hosseini also said Iran was pressing ahead with plans to expand its program to enrich uranium, which the West and Israel say Iran is using to make nuclear warheads despite Tehran's denials.
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"If Israel takes such a stupid step and attacks, the answer of Iran and its Revolutionary Guard will be rapid, firm and destructive and it will be given in a few seconds," he told a news conference.
The Guards are an ideologically-driven wing of Iran's military with a separate command structure to regular units.
Israel bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981 to prevent former President Saddam Hussein from making atomic weapons, and some analysts have speculated that Israel could consider similar action against Iran if it felt threatened.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel should be "wiped off the map" but has also said Iran is not a threat.
Experts say knocking out Iran's nuclear facilities would be a far tougher prospect than it was in Iraq partly because Iranian sites are spread out and heavily protected.
Israeli officials have said they want the international community, which has been pushing Iran to halt its sensitive atomic work, to resolve the dispute through diplomatic means.
But so far Iran has not responded to UN demands to halt uranium enrichment, the part of Iran's program which most worries the West because it can be used to make fuel for nuclear power stations or material for warheads.
Asked if Iran was continuing with its plans to build by March 3,000 centrifuges, used to enrich uranium, Hosseini said: "Iran is trying to do so under the supervision of the IAEA."
The UN atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, carries out routine checks of Iran's nuclear facilities.
Iran recently launched a new chain of 164 centrifuges, called a cascade. It now has two such chains working but such a small number would take years to produce enough material for a single warhead. But Iran says it plans to build thousands.
Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, insists it only wants to master the nuclear fuel cycle to make electricity.
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