If the United States were to attack Iran, the country would respond by striking US interests all over the world, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday.

Speaking to a gathering of Iranian air force commanders, Khamenei said: "The enemy knows well that any invasion would be followed by a comprehensive reaction to the invaders and their interests all over the world."

US President George W. Bush has ordered American troops to act against Iranians suspected of being involved in the Iraqi insurgency and has deployed a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf area as a warning to Iran. The UN Security Council has imposed sanctions because of Iran's refusal to cease uranium enrichment, and is due to consider strengthening later this month.

"Some people say that the US president is not prone to calculating the consequences of his actions," Khamenei said in remarks broadcast on state television, "but it is possible to bring this kind of person to wisdom."

"US policymakers and analysts know that the Iranian nation would not let an invasion go without a response," Khamenei added.

Khamenei addressed rumors about his health a subject that is rarely discussed openly in Iran. Last month, there was speculation that his health had deteriorated seriously.

"Enemies of the Islamic system fabricated various rumors about death and health to demoralize the Iranian nation, but they did not know that they are not dealing with only one person in Iran. They are facing a nation," Khamenei said.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards test-fired missiles Thursday that a commander said could sink "big warships" in the Gulf, the Sea of Oman and the northern Indian Ocean, the state broadcaster said.

"These missiles, with a maximum range of 350 kilometers, can hit different kinds of big warships in all of the Persian Gulf, all of the Sea of Oman and the north of the Indian Ocean," senior Revolutionary Guards naval commander Ali Fadavi said.

Fadavi was also quoted by the state broadcaster's website as saying that the 500-kilogram warhead of this missile had the capacity to sink "all kinds of big warships".
 
State television said the missile tests, staged on the second day of war-games by the Guards' naval and air units, were "to show that Iran is able to confront any possible threats".

The Revolutionary Guards are an ideological wing of the Islamic Republic's armed forces and have a command structure separate from the regular military. They regularly hold exercises in the Gulf area that are widely seen as deliberate demonstrations of military power.

Military experts say Iranian forces are no technological match for the US military but could still cause havoc in the Gulf and the narrow Strait of Hormuz, a choke point through which two-fifths of the world's traded oil passes.

The state broadcaster's website identified the missile as an anti-ship SSN-4, which websites and Jane's information group describe as a ballistic missile that has been around since the 1960s and is fired from submarines when on the surface.

The websites say the SSN-4 has a range of up to 550 kilometers or more. One website, www.navweaps.com, said it had a maximum payload of 1,370 kilograms, much bigger than the 500-kilogram warhead described by Fadavi.

(China Daily via agencies February 9, 2007)