Supreme leader Khamenei says Iran would retaliate against attacks

“The U.S. and others must be aware that we have threats in
the face of threats and oil embargo that will be carried out when deemed
necessary,” Khamenei said at Friday prayers, according to Iran’s Mehr News
Agency.

{mosads}The Washington Post reported Thursday that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta thinks “there is a strong likelihood” that Israel will
attack Iran in the spring to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons. The United States, Israel and others think Iran is trying to obtain nuclear weapons, while
Iran says its nuclear program is to produce energy.

Iran recently moved uranium enrichment production into an
underground bunker.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said at a
conference in Israel that “Whoever says ‘later’, could find that it is too
late,” referencing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, according to Haaretz.

President Obama has said that no options are off the table
to stop Iran. Panetta did
not comment publicly on the Post report while he met with NATO defense
ministers in Brussels.

The United States and Europe have recently enacted economic sanctions
against Iran to try and stop its nuclear program, moves that have also prompted
protests and threats from Iran.

Khamenei said Friday that the U.S. threats “are a sign of
its failure.”

“That’s why it (the US) resorts to force,” Khamenei said,
according to the Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency. “They do not
have any logic except using force and have no way but bloodshed to go forward.”