'Iran's response will be real, decisive'

The Jerusalem Post (Link) - AP (July 6, 2009)

Iran is ready to take "real and decisive" action if Israel attacks its nuclear facilities, a senior Iranian parliamentary official said Monday.

The remarks by Alaeddin Broujerdi, the head of Iran's parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, came after US Vice President Joe Biden signaled that Washington would not try to prevent any such Israeli assault.

"Both the US and Israel are aware of the consequence of an erroneous decision," Broujerdi told reporters at the Iranian Embassy in Tokyo.

"I believe our response will be real and decisive," Broujerdi said. He declined to elaborate.

Biden was asked on ABC's This Week whether the US would stand in the way militarily if the Israelis decided they needed to take out Iran's nuclear program.

"Israel can determine for itself - it's a sovereign nation - what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else," he said in an interview broadcast Sunday, thus seeming to give Israel a green light for military action to eliminate Iran's nuclear threat.

Broujerdi also defended a recent crackdown on protesters following Iran's presidential election, saying that Iranian police had merely acted to restore order, and accusing reformist leader Mir-Hussein Mousavi of instigating the protests.

"There is no confusion. It is (now) a totally peaceful situation in Iran," he said. Broujerdi is currently visiting Japan as chairman of the Iran-Japan Parliamentary Friendship League.