Iran says West has no proof of nuclear weapons

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi  Recent reports suggesting Israel is considering attacking Iran are just "media clamour" and the Islamic republic is able to face down any threat, Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Tuesday.
 "We have repeatedly said that our country's defensive capability, whether at sea, by missile, or underwater, is very high and up-to-date and we have the might to fend off any threats," the ISNA news agency quoted Vahidi as saying.
 "Rather, the recent threats against Iran are media clamour, and I believe it derives from the West's weakness against Iran. In my opinion, they are the last groans of a dying movement of oppression out of which the Zionist regime (Israel) was born."
 Vahidi said the threats, circulating in the Israeli press, came at a time when Israel and the United States were confronting domestic problems.
 "In any case, Western threats are not important and we are ready to give a powerful response to any ignorant (action) by the enemies."
Iran also said on Tuesday that the West had no serious proof it was developing nuclear weapons, ahead of a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that is expected to provide new evidence against Tehran
“There is no serious proof that Iran is going to create a nuclear warhead,” Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said, responding to a question about the IAEA report during a visit to neighboring Armenia.
“The West and the United States are exerting pressure on Iran without serious arguments and proof,” he said.
 Israeli President Shimon Peres warned on Sunday that an attack on Iran was increasingly likely, ahead of a pivotal report on Iran's nuclear programme due to be released this week by the UN nuclear watchdog.
 "I don't think that any decision has already been made, but there is an impression that Iran is getting closer to nuclear weapons," he said.
Speculation has grown in Israel about the possibility of a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, with the Haaretz newspaper reporting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak were seeking cabinet support for an attack.
Iran accused Israel and the United States of seeking international support for a military strike on its nuclear facilities, which Russia warned on Monday would be "a very serious mistake".
Germany said meanwhile that it would call for "greater pressure" on Iran to comply with international commitments on its nuclear programme.
The spike in tension comes ahead of the release this week of a report into Iran's nuclear drive by the IAEA which diplomats say will focus on the Islamic republic's alleged efforts to put fissile material in a warhead and developing missiles.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned against a military attack on Iran and again insisted Tehran's atomic programme was for peaceful purposes only.
"Iran's capabilities are increasing and it is progressing, and for that reason it has been able to compete in the world. Now Israel and the West, particularly America, fear Iran's capabilities and role," Ahmadinejad said in remarks published Monday in Egypt's Al-Akhbar newspaper.
"Therefore they are trying to gather international support for a military operation to stop (Iran's) role. The arrogant should know that Iran will not allow them to take any action against it," he said.
Ahmadinejad added Washington wanted to "save the Zionist entity, but it will not be able to do so."
"This entity (Israel) can be compared to a kidney transplanted in a body that rejected it," he said. "Yes it will collapse and its end will be near."
Ahmadinejad's diatribe against Israel, Iran's arch-rival, comes after Israeli President Shimon Peres warned on television Saturday that an attack on Iran was becoming "more and more likely."
However, interviews in recent months with government and military officials –most speaking on condition of anonymity – and independent experts suggest that Israel prefers caution over a unilateral strike against the Iranians.
“The military option is not an empty threat, but Israel should not leap to lead it. The whole thing should be led by the United States, and as a last resort,” Deputy Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon told Israel’s Army Radio.
Israelis have known for years that an attack on Iran would be much more difficult than their Iraq strike. Iran is larger, more distant and, perhaps because it learned the lessons of Iraq, has built numerous and well-fortified facilities. Taking these out would require a sustained campaign by the Israeli air force, which is more geared for precision strikes through the use of advanced technology.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak also played down speculation that Israel intended to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, saying it had not decided to embark on any military operation.
“War is not a picnic. We want a picnic. We don’t want a war,” Barak told Israel Radio ahead of the release this week of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran’s nuclear activity.
“(Israel) had not yet decided to embark on any operation,” he said, dismissing Israeli media speculation that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had chosen that option.
Iran has so far refused to freeze its uranium enrichment activities, despite several UN sets of sanctions.
Diplomats in Vienna said the IAEA report to be circulated among its members Tuesday or Wednesday, will provide fresh evidence of Iran's nuclear weapons drive.
Previous IAEA assessments have centred on Iran's efforts to produce fissile material - uranium and plutonium - which can be put to peaceful uses like power generation, or be used to make a nuclear bomb.
But the intelligence update will focus on Iran's alleged efforts towards putting radioactive material in a warhead and developing missiles to deliver them to a target.
"The report is not going to include some sort of 'smoking gun'," one Western diplomat told AFP. "But it will be an extensive body of evidence that will be very hard for Iran to refute as forgery, as they have done in the past."
 Western officials cited by The Washington Post said the intelligence reinforced concerns that Iran continued to conduct weapons-related research after 2003 when, according to US intelligence agencies, Iranian leaders halted such experiments in response to international and domestic pressures.
The newspaper reported Sunday that the Iranian government has mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon after receiving help from foreign scientists.
According to the intelligence provided to the IAEA, key assistance was provided by Vyacheslav Danilenko, a former Soviet nuclear scientist who was contracted in the mid-1990s by Iran’s Physics Research Center, the paper said.