Iran vows ‘even more decisive’ strike if attacked

updated 11:02 a.m. ET Oct. 26, 2007

TEHRAN, Iran - The head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards dismissed the possibility of U.S. military action against Iran and warned that his forces would respond with an “even more decisive” strike if attacked, an Iranian news agency reported Friday.

The comments by Gen. Mohammad Ali Jaafari came after the United States announced sweeping new sanctions against Iran, focusing on the Revolutionary Guards, a force that is tasked with protecting Iran’s Islamic government and reports to the country’s supreme leader.

Asked about the possibility of an American strike on Iran, Jaafari told reporters late Thursday that, “These words are just exaggerations, and I don’t consider them a threat,” the news agency ISNA reported.

“The Islamic Republic has the strength and power of its people’s faith. This power is joined with experience, knowledge and technology in the realms of defense. The enemy knows it cannot make any mistake, so these words are just exaggeration,” he said. “We will reply to any strike with an even more decisive strike.”

The sanctions ban U.S. dealings with the extensive network of businesses believed linked to the Guards — and put stepped-up pressure on international banks to cut any ties with those firms.

So far, the official Iranian response has been defiant.

On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, called the new U.S. measures “worthless and ineffective” and said they were “doomed to fail as before.”

Jaafari, the head of the Revolutionary Guards, said the sanctions tried to undermine the corps but “now as always, the corps is ready to defend the ideals of the revolution more than ever before.”

Iran’s economy is struggling, with dramatic price rises this year. The cost of housing and basic foodstuffs like vegetables have doubled or even quadrupled. The government also has imposed unpopular fuel rationing in an attempt to reduce expensive subsidies for imported gasoline.

China, a key ally of Iran, warned Friday that the sanctions could increase tensions over Iran’s nuclear program.

“Dialogue and negotiations are the best approach to resolving the Iranian nuclear issue,” the ministry said in a brief statement in response to a question from The Associated Press. “To impose new sanctions on Iran at a time when international society and the Iranian authorities are working hard to find a solution to the Iranian nuclear issue can only complicate the issue.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was due to visit China over the weekend to lobby for intensified U.N. sanctions against Iran, the Israeli Embassy said Friday.

Washington has already won two U.N. Security Council sanctions resolutions, Chinese officials say China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the council, would not support further sanctions from the body.

‘Looking forward for the sanctions’
Despite the government’s insistence that U.S. and U.N. sanctions aren’t causing any pain, some leading Iranians have begun to say publicly that the pressure does hurt. And on Tehran’s streets, people are increasingly worried over the economic pinch.

The sanctions have heightened resentment of the United States among some in the public. But they are also fueling criticism among Iranian politicians that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is mismanaging the crisis with hard-line stances that worsen the standoff with the West.

Ahmadinejad and his allies are likely counting on sanctions to rally Iranians against the United States.

“Hard-liners in Tehran were looking forward for the sanctions. It helps them hide their incompetence behind the embargo,” said political commentator Saeed Laylaz.

But many conservatives who once backed Ahmadinejad have joined his critics. They point to his failure to fulfill promises to repair the economy—despite increased oil revenues—and say his fiery rhetoric goads the West into punishing Iran.

Ahmadinejad’s sudden replacement of Iran’s top nuclear negotiator with a close loyalist over the weekend also angered many conservatives in parliament.

The Bush administration hopes its new sanctions will push companies around the world to cut their business ties with Iran. “It is increasingly likely that if you are doing business with Iran you are doing business with the IRGC,” Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said, referring to the Guards.

Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called earlier U.N. sanctions, which punish a list of Iranian companies believed linked to the nuclear program, “a pile of papers that have no value.”

Most notably, the new sanctions ban dealings with two major Iranian banks, Bank Melli and Bank Mellat, adding them to a list of already banned banks. That means the banks will have difficulty turning to European banks for dollars, said Matthew Levitt, a former Treasury Department terrorism expert now with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

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