Iran says any attack would provoke fierce reaction

[July 02, 2008]  MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Any attack on Iran would provoke an unimaginably fierce response and add to further turmoil to the already seething oil market, the country's oil minister warned Wednesday.

At the same time, Gholam Hossein Nozari sought to calm fears that Tehran might cut oil deliveries to consuming countries, suggesting that Iran would continue supplying the market even if struck by Israel or the United States.

Tehran "is not going to be quiet," if attacked, Nozari told reporters. It's "going to react fiercely, and nobody can imagine what would be the reaction of Iran," he added.

Nozari spoke outside the 19th World Petroleum Congress after a presentation on Iran's oil and gas industry to a packed audience, including representatives of European and U.S. oil and energy companies.

Tehran is under U.N., U.S. and European sanctions because of its defiance of Security Council demands to rein in its nuclear activities. But with oil supplies tight and prices at unprecedented levels, the energy industry remains tempted by the possibilities of investing in Iran, OPEC's second largest oil producer and No. 2 in terms of the world's natural gas reserves.

U.S. President George W. Bush has repeatedly suggested that a strike on Tehran remains a last-ditch possibility unless it gives up uranium enrichment and heeds other Security Council demands. Israel too has warned that it is ready to hit the Islamic Republic's nuclear installations.

Nozari suggested such any attack on his country would spike prices into uncharted territory.

"We don't think the wise people in the world even think about any action like that," he said adding: "Can you imagine ... what would be the result in the oil market?"

But Nozari indicated Iran would not withhold its crude from the market even if attacked although other officials have indicated otherwise.

"Iran has always been a reliable source of supply to the market, and Iran remains a (reliable) source of supply," he said.

And he dismissed suggestions that tensions over his country's nuclear program have taken a bite out of Iran's oil and gas exports, despite U.S. sanctions that prohibit American companies from doing business with Tehran and growing pressure from Washington on other countries to follow suit.

"We have increased our production in the past two years by 250,000 barrels a day and we have added to the production of our gas," he told the AP.

[Associated Press; By GEORGE JAHN]

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