Iran said Sunday it was not taking talk of a US attack seriously, but nevertheless cautioned Washington that military action against the Islamic republic would be a "major strategic blunder". "It's nothing new. Once in a while America starts a psychological war," spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters in response to a hardening of the tone by US officials against Iran.
"The Islamic republic is strong enough and has the capability to defend itself, so we feel no danger or threat. We do not see it (a US attack) as likely, unless someone wants to make a major strategic blunder," he said.
In separate comments carried by the state news agency IRNA, Intelligence Minister Ali Yunessi simply said any US attack would be "stupid" and "America's biggest error". He also vowed to "neutralise any plot", saying security preparation had been underway for three years.
The perception that the United States is embarking on a course of confrontation with Iran has mounted in recent days - with analysts debating what military options the US has.
The New Yorker magazine reported that US commandos have been operating inside Iran since mid-2004, secretly scouting targets for possible air strikes targeting what the US says is a covert weapons programme.
The Pentagon attacked the story as "riddled with errors of fundamental fact" but did not expressly deny conducting covert reconnaissance missions.
Last Monday, US President George W. Bush said he could not rule out using force if Tehran failed to rein in its nuclear plans, and then US Vice President Dick Cheney said Iran was "right at the top of the list" of global trouble spots.
Cheney also warned that Israel might launch a pre-emptive strike on its own to shut down Iran's nuclear programme.
Asefi said the Bush administration, which has already lumped Iran into an "axis of evil", has embarked on a policy of "force and bullying" and was waging a "cultural and religious war".
As for Cheney's warning of a possible Israeli attack, Asefi said this only served to prove that "the Zionist lobby is strong in the United States".
"This will isolate the US more than before," Asefi told reporters, adding that it was now the task of "international bodies" to keep the US administration in check.
"International bodies have been formed to stop such policies and to bring such countries into compliance with international standards, so we expect that they will pay more attention to this in the second term of the Bush administration," he said.
While Iran insists its nuclear activities are strictly for peaceful purposes, the European Union's "big three" - Britain, France and Germany - are engaged in a diplomatic effort aimed at securing long-term guarantees the clerical regime will not seek the bomb.
The United States has so far refused to join the EU effort, having had no diplomatic ties with Iran since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution, and US officials are sceptical of the EU's chances of success.
But Asefi said the talks with the EU were "moving forward in a positive way and as long that continues and that there is no time wasting, they should continue."
Concern over US intentions also appears to be building within the EU.
According to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has drawn up a case against a military strike on Iran in a 200-page dossier that makes the case for a "negotiated solution" to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions.
The paper said the message that the British government wants no part in another war in the Middle East will be reinforced by Prime Minister Tony Blair when he meets Bush in Brussels next month and at an Anglo-American summit in Washington after the British general election, expected in May.
It said Straw will also make the case when he meets US secretary of state nominee Condoleezza Rice, a Bush confidante, in London next month.
EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner also told the German Bild am Sonntag newspaper that "no one could underestimate the consequences of a military strike - not only on the region but also on relations between the Islamic world and the West."