Iran says not afraid of US, will deter attack

‘‘We are able to say that we have strength such that no country can attack us because they do not have precise information about our military capabilities due to our ability to implement flexible strategies,’’ the Mehr news agency quoted Shamkhani as saying.

‘‘We can claim that we have rapidly produced equipment that has resulted in the greatest deterrent,’’ he said, without elaborating.

Bush said on Monday that Washington would not rule out military action against Iran if it was not more forthcoming about its suspected nuclear weapons programme.

‘‘I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I will never take any option off the table,’’ Bush told NBC News, adding that he could act if Iran ‘‘continues to stonewall the international community about the existence of its nuclear weapons program.’’

His comments followed an article in The New Yorker magazine on Sunday which said American commando units were conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran to identify hidden nuclear and chemical sites for possible future strikes.

Iran denies its nuclear facilities are to be used to make nuclear weapons and Pentagon officials have criticised the New Yorker report.

The report written by Pulitzer-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, alleged that teams of US commandos had entered Iran searching for hidden sites that could be working for developing nuclear weapons.

Pentagon’s spokesman Lawrence Dirita said in a statement that the article ‘‘is so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his (Hersh) entire piece is destroyed’’.

‘‘The Iranian regime’s apparent nuclear ambitions and its demonstrated support for terrorist organizations is a global challenge that deserves much more serious treatment than Seymour Hersh provides in The New Yorker article titled ‘‘the coming wars,’’ Dirita said on Monday.

He alleged that Hersh’s sources fed him ‘‘rumour,innuendo, and assertions about meetings that never happened, programs that do not exist and statements by officials that were never made’’.

However, the spokesman did not confirm or deny Hersh’s claim that the administration had authorised covert operations against the countries, located in West Asia and South Asia.

Defence department spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable also refused to comment on them, saying ‘‘we don’t discuss missions, capabilities or activities of special operations forces.’’