Iran will "blow up the heart" of Israel if attacked by the Jewish state or the United States, an aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted on Friday as saying.

"Even if one American or Zionist missile hits our land, before the dust is settled, Iranian missiles will blow up the heart of Israel," state news agency IRNA quoted Khamenei's representative to the elite Revolutionary Guards, Mojtaba Zolnour, as saying.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said that Tehran would carry out severe reprisals if Israel or the United States attack the country.

The United States and its regional ally Israel have never ruled out a military option to stop Tehran's nuclear drive, which the West says is aimed at making nuclear weapons while Iran says it is solely for peaceful ends.

At the end of September, armed forces chief of staff General Hassan Firouzabadi dismissed Israeli threats against Iran, saying the Jewish state was a "paper tiger."

After the 1979 Islamic revolution, Tehran stopped withdrew is recognition of Israel.

The Jewish state considers the Islamic republic to be its arch-enemy after repeated statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Holocaust was a "myth" and that Israel is doomed to be "wiped off the map."

earlier related report
Iran warns against attack, boasts nuclear talks success
Iran issued another warning on Friday against any attack on the Islamic republic, while claiming its talks with world powers over its controversial nuclear programme were "a success and a victory."

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's deputy representative to the elite Revolutionary Guards, Mojtaba Zolnour, said Tehran will "blow up the heart" of Israel if attacked by the Jewish state or the United States.

"Even if one American or Zionist missile hits our land, before the dust is settled, Iranian missiles will blow up the heart of Israel," state news agency IRNA quoted Zolnour as saying.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said Tehran would carry out severe reprisals if Israel or the United States attacked the country.

The United States and its regional ally Israel have never ruled out a military option to stop Tehran's nuclear drive, which the West says is aimed at making nuclear weapons while Iran says it is solely for peaceful ends.

After the 1979 Islamic revolution, Tehran withdrew its recognition of Israel.

The Jewish state considers the Islamic republic to be its arch-enemy after repeated statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Holocaust was a "myth" and that Israel is doomed to be "wiped off the map."

Another Khamenei appointee and one of Tehran's Friday prayer leaders, Ahmad Khatami, also issued a stern warning to Iran's enemies, without naming any.

"As our leader has said, our enemies are pursuing an Iranophobia scenario against us, and they are saying Iran is against world peace. But the world has understood that what they say is a lie," Khatami told worshippers in a sermon broadcast live on state-run radio.

"The enemy should know that if they want to hurt Iran they will receive such a slap that they will not be able to stand up," he added amid the habitual chants of "death to American and death to Israel."

Last month, Iran disclosed that it was building a second uranium enrichment plant, angering world powers and drawing an accusation from UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei that having kept the work secret was on the "wrong side of the law."

Tensions increased only days later, and just days before crucial talks in Geneva with world powers over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, when Tehran tested several short- and medium-range missiles.

Khatami labelled those talks a "success and victory."

"The Geneva talks were a success and a victory for the Islamic republic system (since) even the Zionist and world arrogances' media confirmed this," he said.

"We owe this success to the wise guidance of the supreme leader and the ninth and tenth governments following his guidance," he added in reference to Ahmadinejad's previous and current administrations.

Iranian officials have maintained that they had the upper hand in the negotiations, with Ahmadinejad on Wednesday calling them a "step forward."

Western governments have been seeking reassurances that Iran's nuclear programme is entirely peaceful, and Iran agreed to open the newly disclosed enrichment plant to UN inspection.

Soon after the talks, ElBaradei visited Tehran to work out the modalities of the inspection, which is due to take place on October 25.

Iran also offered to send low-enriched uranium abroad so that it could be enriched to higher levels by a third party, and is to meet with France, Russia and the United States in Vienna on October 19 to work out the modalities.

Uranium enrichment lies at the heart of Western concerns about the Iranian nuclear programme. The sensitive process can produce fuel for civilian nuclear reactors or, in highly extended form, the fissile core of an atomic bomb.