Iran's defense minister calls threats 'media clamor'

Vahidi: Talk of IDF strike on Iran derives from US, Israeli weakness, are last groans of a dying movement of oppression, AFP reports.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS
Iran Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi 311 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi)
Iran Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi 311 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi)
Recent talk in the media about a possible strike by Israel on Iran's nuclear program are "media clamor," Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said Tuesday, according to AFP.
The talk of military strikes against Tehran, he said, "derives from the West's weakness against Iran" and "are the last groans of a dying movement of oppression, out of which the Zionist regime was born," according to the report.
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Vahidi also echoed statements made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Monday, that "Iran will not permit [anyone from making] a move against it."
"The US fears Iran's capability," Ahmadinejad told Egyptian daily al-Akhbar. "Iran will not permit (anyone from making) a move against it."
On Sunday, a senior Iranian cleric also responded to the flurry of media attention surrounding a possible Israeli military strike, saying that Jerusalem was screaming "like a cornered cat" rather than roaring like a lion.
"The recent threats of the Zionist regime against Iran are more for internal consumption for themselves and their masters who are struggling with the Wall Street movement," said Ayatollah Mahmoud Alavi, referring to anti-capitalism protests that began in New York and have spread around the world.
"There is a difference between the roar of a lion and the scream of a cat that has been trapped in a corner," he said. "And this threat of the Zionist regime and its master America is like the scream of a cornered cat."
Alavi, a member of the Assembly of Experts, a body that appoints and supervises Iran's supreme leader, said Israel would not dare attack Iran. "If they make such a mistake they will receive a crushing response from the Islamic Republic," he told the official IRNA news agency.