TEHRAN, Jul 12 (Reuters): Iran warned the United States and Israel Saturday it would be "madness" to attack the Islamic Republic over a nuclear programme the West suspects is aimed at making bombs.
The comments by government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham came a few days after Iranian missile tests heightened regional tension and helped send world oil prices to record highs.
Israel staged an air force exercise last month that stoked speculation about a possible assault on Iranian nuclear sites.
Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, has vowed to strike back at Tel Aviv and US interests and shipping in the region if it is attacked, threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, conduit for about 40 percent of globally traded oil.
"We do not imagine that anybody would commit such madness and stupidity ... and nobody has the power to make such aggression," the state broadcaster quoted Elham as saying.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran is not a threat at all and will not accept any threats."
Iran says its nuclear projects are aimed only at generating electricity. Western nations and Israel fear the Islamic Republic is seeking to build bombs.
Washington has said it wants diplomacy to end the row but has not ruled out military action should that fail.
Israel, long assumed to have its own atomic arsenal, has sworn to prevent Iran from emerging as a nuclear-armed power.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said he believed neither of its two arch-foes would want to get entangled in a new Middle East crisis by launching strikes against the country.
"The Zionist regime is still involved in the aftershocks of the war with Lebanon," he told the IRNA news agency, referring to Israel's inconclusive 2006 war with Hezbollah guerrillas. "And the US still does not possess the capacity to enter another crisis in the Persian Gulf region."
Elham said the aims of this week's wargames, during which Iran says it fired missiles that could hit Israel and US bases in the region, included strengthening its military readiness.
