Iran cleric: US attack will provoke global retribution

A senior Iranian cleric on Friday warned the US of being dragged into a global “quagmire” in the event of committing any act of aggression against the Islamic Republic.

“If the United States decides to go ahead with a crazy act … the friends of the Islamic Revolution will endanger America’s interests [around the globe],” Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a prominent member of the Assembly of Experts, said during a Friday Prayers sermon at Tehran University.

“The Americans will be trapped in a quagmire they will not be able to get out of,” he added.

The remarks came after President Barack Obama unveiled a new nuclear policy in which the White House reserves the right to use atomic bombs against Iran and North Korea.

The US accuses Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), of seeking to develop the capacity to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran, however, says its program is designed to develop the civilian applications of the technology.

Ayatollah Khatami said Iran’s rejection of nuclear weapons is not out of Western threats but out of respect for religious sanctities.

Tehran’s interim Friday Prayers leader said the Islamic Republic will never seek nuclear arms as weapons of mass destruction are forbidden by Islam.