Iran leader responds to US, Europe threats

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Amid threats from the United States and the other imperialist powers
Iran's highest constitutional official, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
responded at a mass rally (see article below).

In addition to the threats, there are contrary indications about
whether Russia has bowed to US demands that it cease helping Iraq
build a nuclear reactor. Russian refusal to help Iran will not prevent
a U.S. attack but encourage it, just as the destruction of Iraq's
"weapons of mass destruction" ended up facilitating rather than
preventing the US invasion.

While the meeting Khamenei addressed is a further indication that the
Iranian government can, if it so decides, rely on sections of the
masses to help defend the country -- unlike Saddam Hussein's regime --
it is not clear what practical steps are being taken to prepare for a
US attack.  Countering a US war threat means not just telling the Bush
administration that it would be suicidal -- which may turn out to be
true in this case, but which US officials grew very used to hearing
from Saddam -- but showing in practice through mass organization that
it would be suicidal.

Cuba has shown the world how to stand up to such attacks. The
character of Cuba's defense is shaped by the workers and peasants
character of the regime. But there are still plenty of things that
Iran, a country where hundreds of thousands and maybe millions of
people will want to resist a US attack, can learn from Cuba's
experience and mass military organization. Of course, a bourgeois
government like Iran's would pay a political price by permitting or
fostering such organization, but this may turn out to be the price of
survival in today's world.

Right now, Washington banks heavily on the experience that the
militant words of Middle Eastern leaders about defending the nation
will not be backed up with deeds.
Fred Feldman




Iran Warns U.S. It Better Not Attack

Wednesday June 4, 2003 12:29 PM
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2749636,00.html

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Anyone who invades Iran would be committing
suicide,
Iran's supreme leader said Wednesday, following the G-8 summit's
warning
that the world would not tolerate an Iranian nuclear bomb.

U.S. officials have accused Iran of harboring senior al-Qaida figures
and strongly suspect it is secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons
program,
raising fears in Iran of punitive measures.

``U.S. threats are not new,'' Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told tens of
thousands of people who had assembled for the 14th anniversary of the
death of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founding father of
the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran says its nuclear development is solely to produce electricity and
that its uranium enrichment is to provide fuel for reactors, not
bombs.

Leaders of the world's eight industrialized nations ended a meeting in
Evian, France, on Monday with a statement that said: ``We will not
ignore the proliferation implications of Iran's advanced nuclear
program.''

The statement said the world could work to prevent the proliferation
of
nuclear weapons with tools such as inspections and ``other measures
...
in accordance with international law.''

One U.S. official in Washington said ``other measures'' was code for
use
of force. But another U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of
anonymity, played down that interpretation and Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi said Bush had told the G-8 leaders there was no
foundation to speculation that the United States might attack Iran.

Khamenei did not mention the G-8 statement or Iran's nuclear program
when he addressed the crowd outside the shrine to Ayatollah Khomeini
in
south Tehran on Wednesday.

``A military attack against Iran -- a great nation with youth ready to
defend their country -- would be suicide for the attacker,'' he said.

``The Iranian nation knows, and the enemy should also know, that the
authorities of the Islamic republic will not subject, or push, the
country toward war with anybody. We don't welcome war,'' Khamenei
said.

``But if somebody chooses to go to war against our country, this
nation
will confront it strongly and resolutely,'' he said.

The crowd responded with chants of ``We sacrifice our blood for our
leader.''

Khamenei took issue with the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, Iran's
western
neighbor, and U.S. allegations that Iran has been stoking anti-U.S.
demonstrations among Iraq's fellow Muslim Shiites.

``(Former Iraqi President) Saddam (Hussein) was a dictator, and you
are
also a dictator because you don't allow the Iraqi people to decide for
themselves. Don't blame Iran. If you are concerned about Iran's
influence in Iraq, we are concerned about your occupation of Iraq. Who
gave you the right to appoint rulers for Iraq?,'' he asked.

Khamenei also rejected U.S. allegations on al-Qaida.

``They say Iran is supporting terrorists and giving shelter to them.
This is a shameless lie. Iran doesn't support terrorists nor does it
shelter them,'' he said.

Iran says its policy is to arrest al-Qaida members and deport them to
their country of origin. It has refused to reveal the names of the
members it is currently holding, saying it has not yet identified
them.