CAIRO- Iran’s President offered friendship to the United States yesterday but also taunted Washington by saying he does not fear an attack by the United States because it could not even defeat a small army in Iraq, according to a television interview with the leader that aired yesterday.
President Barack Obama has repeatedly offered to start a dialogue with Iran, but his Administration says Iran chose international isolation instead.
The two countries are at odds over Iran’s nuclear programme, which the US fears is aimed at producing weapons though Tehran denies it.
Yesterday Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the country’s first domestically built unmanned bomber aircraft, calling it an “ambassador of death” to Iran’s enemies.
The 4m-long drone aircraft can carry up to four cruise missiles and will have a range of 1000km, according to a state TV report – not far enough to reach arch-enemy Israel.
US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this month that the US military has a plan to attack Iran, although he said he thought a military strike was probably a bad idea.
Still, he said the risk of Iran developing a nuclear weapon was unacceptable and he reiterated that “the military option” remained on the table.
“There are no logical reasons for the United States to carry out such an act,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the Arabic satellite television channel Al Jazeera, according to an Arabic translation of the interview in Farsi.
“Do you believe an army that has been defeated by a small army in Iraq can enter into a war with a large and well trained army like the Iranian army?” he asked, referring to the insurgents in Iraq.
He said Washington lacked real motives for attacking Iran and would not benefit from hostility.
“The friendship of Iran is much better than its hostility,” he said.
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