Iran president says Israel would not dare attack

MADRID, Jan 17 (Reuters) Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes neither Israel nor the United States would dare attack the Islamic Republic over its nuclear programme, a Spanish newspaper quoted him today as saying.

Iran's Defence Minister was also later quoted as saying any such move by Israel would be ''suicide'' but said suggestions the Jewish state might attack were a bluff to gauge the Islamic Republic's reaction.

The comments followed an article in Britain's Sunday Times on January 7 that said Israel had secret plans to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.

''They well know the power of the Iranian people. I don't think they would ever dare to attack us, neither them nor their masters.

They won't do such a stupid thing,'' Ahmadinejad told El Mundo during a visit to Nicaragua, referring to Israel.

Conservative Iranian leaders, such as Ahmadinejad, see Israel as a stooge of the United States in the West Asia.

Iran does not recognise Israel and Ahmadinejad has previously called for it to be ''wiped off the map''.

''That regime wants to hurt the Iranian people. They have many dreams but they are not all powerful,'' said the Iranian leader.

Iranian Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar also dismissed talk of an attack but said Israel would ''regret'' such a move, Iran's ISNA news agency quoted him as saying after talks with Sudan's visiting defence minister today.

''Firstly, any move by the Zionist regime would be suicide ...

and secondly it is a bluff so that through this they can gauge the reaction of Iran's people and officials,'' Najjar said.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, also said Iran did not take such talk ''too seriously'', the official IRNA news agency reported.

Israel has refused to rule out pre-emptive military action against Iran on the lines of its 1981 air strike against an atomic reactor in Iraq, although many analysts believe Iran's nuclear facilities are too much for Israel to destroy alone.

Asked about whether he wants to see Israel destroyed, Ahmadinejad avoided a direct answer, but seemed to refer to an earlier statement in which had said that Israel would be wiped out ''just as the Soviet Union was wiped out''.

''Where is the Soviet Union?'' he told El Mundo, ''It has disappeared.'' The UN Security Council voted unanimously last month to impose sanctions on Iran to try to stop its uranium enrichment programme, which Tehran insists is peaceful.

The United States, which suspects Iran hopes to develop nuclear weapons, says it wants a diplomatic solution to the deadlock but military force remains an option.

Israel has said it will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.

Reuters AB DB2354