Lawmaker Underlines Iran's Severe Response to Possible Israeli Aggression

"If the Quds occupying regime (Israel) commits a mistake against Iran, it will find no way to escape and Zionists themselves know well that Iran's reaction would be unpredictable and strongly harsh," Jalali told FNA on Tuesday. 

Jalili's comments came after a recent report by the Iranian English-language Press TV said that several squadrons of Israeli fighter jets are doing dress rehearsals in Western Iraq in preparation for a blitzkrieg on Iran. 

The Iranian lawmaker said that no independent source has thus far confirmed the news, but if the report is proved to be true, then the presence of Israeli fighters on Iraq's soil would be synonymous with a military invasion of the country and "the government of Iraq would not remain silent" under such conditions. 

Earlier in May, Press TV quoted a source close to prominent Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's group as saying that Israeli fighter jets had conducted drills at a military base in Iraq in order to strike targets inside Iran. 

According to the report, a considerable number of Israeli warplanes, including the latest generation of US fighter jets were seen at Al Asad Airbase - the second largest US military airbase in Iraq located in Al Anbar province. 

Based on the report, Iraqi officials had not been notified about the drills conducted in collaboration with the US military. 

Israel and its close ally the United States accuse 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. 

Speculation that Israel could bomb Iran mounted since a big Israeli air drill three years ago. In the first week of June, 2008, 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters reportedly took part in an exercise over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece, which was interpreted as a dress rehearsal for a possible attack on Iran's nuclear installations. 

Iran has, in return, warned that it would target Israel and its worldwide interests in case it comes under attack by the Tel Aviv. 

The United States has also always stressed that military action is a main option for the White House to deter Iran's progress in the field of nuclear technology. 

Iran has warned it could close the strategic Strait of Hormoz if it became the target of a military attack over its nuclear program. 

Strait of Hormoz, the entrance to the strategic Persian Gulf waterway, is a major oil shipping route. 

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". 

Iran is also equipped with various types of home-made air-defense systems which, officials say, can cripple and pin down any enemy air force.