Iran Says Zero Chance Of US Attack

Tehran: A top Iranian security official said on Saturday that there was "zero chance" of a US attack on Iran to thwart its nuclear ambitions, the state IRNA news agency reported. "There is about zero possibility of a US military attack on Iran," deputy interior minister Mohammad Baqer Zolghadr said.

The United States has never ruled out a military option to halt Iran's controversial nuclear drive, which it claims is a cover for efforts to build the atomic bomb.

Iran insists it has a right to uranium enrichment to make nuclear fuel as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and says its atomic programme is solely aimed at energy generation.

An Israeli press report said on Friday that the Jewish state's army was in training for long distance missions, after agreeing a timetable with the United States for sanctions against Iran's nuclear programme to work.

Israel, which considers Iran its number one enemy, is believed to be the only nuclear-armed nation in the Middle East although it has always refused to confirm or deny its nuclear capability.

Zolghadr, the former deputy head of Iran's elite ideological army the Revolutionary Guards, said the United States remained the only foreign threat.

"America's arrogant power is the only foreign threat against Iran's national security but Iran's resistance and capability has neutralised all US strategies for a regime change or behaviour change in Iran," he said.

The Islamic republic does not recognise Israel and its hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has drawn international condemnation by saying the Jewish state should be wiped off the map.