Senior Lawmaker Dismisses US Threats against Iran as Bluffing

A senior Iranian lawmaker described Washington's recent war rhetoric against Tehran as mere bluffing, and said the US is well aware that such a folly will be reciprocated with Iran's crushing response. "The US threats are nothing more than a hollow allegation and this reality is crystal-clear to both nations," Nader Qazipour told FNA on Monday. He pointed to the abundant US bases in the neighboring countries which have been set up to limit Iran's power, and said, "If the US had the power to make an aggression against our soil, it would have made a move already." "Thus, this (lack of action) indicates that enemies' claims and threats are void and baseless," the legislator underscored. The US and its close ally, Israel, accue Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, while they have never presented any corroborative document to substantiate their allegations. Both Washington and Tel Aviv possess advanced weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads. Iran vehemently denies the charges, insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Both Israel and the US have recently intensified rhetoric against Iran, saying an attack on the Islamic Republic's nuclear site is impending. Iran has, in return, warned that it would target Israel and its worldwide interests in case it comes under attack by the Tel Aviv. Iran has also warned that it could close the strategic Strait of Hormuz if it became the target of a military attack over its nuclear program. Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the strategic Persian Gulf waterway, is a major oil shipping route. An estimated 40 percent of the world's oil supply passes through the waterway. Meantime, a recent study by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a prestigious American think tank, has found that a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities "is unlikely" to delay the country's program. The ISIS study also cautioned that an attack against Iran would backfire by compelling the country to acquire nuclear weaponry. A recent study by a fellow at Harvard's Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, Caitlin Talmadge, warned that Iran could use mines as well as missiles to block the strait, and that "it could take many weeks, even months, to restore the full flow of commerce, and more time still for the oil markets to be convinced that stability had returned." In a Sep. 11, 2008 report, the Washington Institute for the Near East Policy said that if Washington takes military action against the Islamic Republic, the scale of Iran's response would likely be proportional to the scale of the damage inflicted on Iranian assets. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen has also recently warned in Tel Aviv of the unexpected consequences of an Israeli attack on Iran, just as he did during the days of the (George W) Bush administration.