Israel: Iran Deputy head of Iran's armed forces rachets up rhetoric

Haaretz

Iran: U.S., Israel highly vulnerable to retaliatory strikes
Deputy head of Iran's armed forces joint chiefs of staff says that his country rejects that United States' carrot and stick approach.

The United States and Israel are highly susceptible to Iranian retaliation if they launch military strikes against Iran, a senior Iranian military commander was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Iran's Press TV reported that Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, the deputy head of Iran's armed forces joint chiefs of staff, asserted that the U.S. and Israel are in no position to carry out military action against Iran due to their vulnerability to counterstrikes.

Jazayeri also reportedly said that Iran "brushes aside" the United States' carrot and stick approach toward Iran.

The U.S. and Israel have not ruled out military action against Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Iran claims its nuclear program is peaceful, mainly for generating electricity.

On Tuesday, Iran rejected as an "antagonistic move" U.S. President Barack Obama's executive order tightening U.S. sanctions that target Iran's central bank and gives U.S. banks new powers to freeze assets linked to the Iranian government.

"It is an antagonistic move ... a psychological war which has no impact ... There is nothing new, it has been going on for over 30 years," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a weekly news conference.

"Sanctions will not have any impact on our nuclear course."

More than two-thirds of Iran's lawmakers have endorsed a statement calling for cutting off oil sales to the European Union before EU sanctions on their country go into effect.

The statement, which was read Wednesday in an open session of parliament broadcast on state radio, said "in the case of the continuation of illogical policies" by the EU, Iran will look for alternative customers for its oil before the European embargo goes into effect in the summer. The statement was signed by 200 of the parliament's 290 lawmakers.

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