Iran says it will harm US interests if attacked

TEHRAN (Reuters) -Iran said on Wednesday it would harm U.S. interests anywhere in the world if the United States launches an attack, a step Washington says is an option if diplomacy fails to resolve a nuclear standoff.

The comments by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei come two days before the U.N. nuclear watchdog reports on whether Iran is complying with U.N. demands to halt uranium enrichment.

Tehran says it will not stop enrichment, which it insists is purely for civilian purposes and not part of what the United States says is an effort to make atomic bombs.

"The Americans should know that if they assault Iran their interests will be harmed anywhere in the world that is possible," Khamenei was quoted as saying by state television.

"The Iranian nation will respond to any blow with double the intensity," he added.

The United States has been pushing to impose sanctions if, as Washington expects, Iran is found in the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency to have flouted U.N. demands.

Fellow U.N. Security Council members Britain and France have supported such a step, but sanctions are opposed by Russia and China, which like the other three permanent members of the council have the power to veto council resolutions.

Iran's nuclear energy chief, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, was due to hold talks at the IAEA's Vienna complex on Wednesday but the move looked too late to decisively alter the IAEA's report that is due to be submitted to the Security Council by April 28.

"... Whatever he tells us at this late stage, there would be no time for inspectors to check and verify it before the report comes out," a Vienna-based diplomat, who asked not to be named, said.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei visited Tehran this month but his proposal that Iran "pause" enrichment was rebuffed.

In response to the U.S. refusal to rule out military action, Iran has warned Washington that its forces in the region are vulnerable. Iran's wargames in the Gulf this month were also widely seen as a veiled threat to a vital oil shipping route.

"The security of the Persian Gulf is very well tied up to the world's economic affairs and it would be quite natural for the Islamic Republic of Iran not to sit idle vis a vis any military adventure," Alaeddin Broujerdi, head of parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, said in London.

RECONSIDERING RELATIONS

Under the threat of sanctions, Iran said on Tuesday it would suspend its relations with the IAEA if it were hit by an embargo. Diplomats said this could mean withdrawing from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday reiterated his view that Iran could reconsider its commitment to the NPT and its cooperation with the IAEA if it felt it was not benefiting from abiding by international protocols.

"We have asked them (the U.N. watchdog), and we are waiting for an answer: what have they given us in reward for doing our duty? What sort of help have they given us?" he told reporters.

"We hope they fulfill their duties and make it unnecessary for the Islamic Republic of Iran to reconsider its relations with them," he said.

Although Iran says it bases its nuclear policy on the NPT, it has pulled out of the treaty's Additional Protocol, which allows snap inspections of atomic facilities. It took that step after Iran's atomic file was referred to the Security Council.

Iran often complains it does not benefit from the NPT's entitlement to shared technology but Western diplomats say Iran needs first to prove its peaceful goals to enjoy this right.

The IAEA has said that after three years of investigation it still cannot confirm that Iran's aims are entirely peaceful, although it has found no hard proof of a military program.

The IAEA says it needs to fill in gaps in its information, including details about Iran's research into P-2 centrifuges that enrich uranium fuel to bomb-grade level faster than the P-1 units it now operates.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday it was time for the Security Council to draft a Chapter 7 resolution. This would be binding under international law and allow for sanctions or even military intervention, although another resolution would be required to specify either step.

"They should know that they cannot impose any decisions upon us by using the name of the IAEA and U.N. Security Council because illegal decisions do not become legitimate just by using the name of the agency and Security Council," Ahmadinejad said.