By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will hit Tel Aviv, U.S. shipping inthe Gulf and American interests around the world if it isattacked over its disputed nuclear activities, an aide toIran's Supreme Leader was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
"The first bullet fired by America at Iran will be followedby Iran burning down its vital interests around the globe," thestudents news agency ISNA quoted Ali Shirazi as saying in aspeech to Revolutionary Guards.
The United States and its allies suspect Iran is trying tobuild nuclear bombs. Tehran says its programme is peaceful.
"The Zionist regime is pressuring White House officials toattack Iran. If they commit such a stupidity, Tel Aviv and U.S.shipping in the Persian Gulf will be Iran's first targets andthey will be burned," Shirazi was quoted as saying.
Shirazi, a mid-level cleric, is Supreme Leader AyatollahAli Khamenei's representative to the Revolutionary Guards.
"The Iranian nation will never accept bullying. The Iraniannation is a nation of believers which believes in jihad andmartyrdom. No army in the world can confront it," he added.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert'sspokesman, Mark Regev, declined to comment on the threat to hitTel Aviv, saying only: "Shirazi's words speak for themselves."
Israel, believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armedpower, has vowed to prevent Iran from acquiring an atomic bomb.The United States says it wants to resolve the dispute bydiplomacy but has not ruled out military action.
Shirazi's comments intensified a war of words that hasraised fears of military confrontation and helped boost worldoil prices to record highs in recent weeks.
"We will make the enemy regret threatening Iran," MohammadHejazi, deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards, wasquoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency onTuesday.
Tel Aviv is an Israeli coastal metropolis of about 2million people. It was hit in 1991 by Scud missiles launched byIraqi leader Saddam Hussein during a U.S.-led war with Baghdad.
Unlike other major Israeli cities such as Jerusalem andHaifa, it is home to relatively few Arabs.
Iran has previously threatened to close the Strait ofHormuz, the sea channel which flows along its coastline at theentrance to the Gulf, if it comes under attack.
The strait is the world's most important waterway becauseit is the conduit for roughly 40 percent of globally tradedoil.
The Revolutionary Guards' commander of artillery andmissile units, Mahmoud Chaharbaghi, said 50 brigades of hisforces had been equipped with what he called smart clustermunitions.
"All our arms, bullets and rockets are on alert so that wewould defend the Islamic Republic's territory with the mostmodern arms we have at our disposal," the moderate Hemayatnewspaper quoted him as saying.
Senior officials from six world powers held a conferencecall on Monday to discuss Iran's response to a revised packageof incentives to curb its nuclear activities.
The United States, France, Britain, China, Russia andGermany offered Iran the new package last month and said Tehranmust suspend its uranium enrichment work before formal talkscould start on implementing it.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday hiscountry would not stop enriching uranium and rejected as"illegitimate" a demand by major powers that it do so.
(Additional reporting by Jerusalem bureau; Writing byAlistair Lyon; Editing by Dominic Evans)
