Itan threatens; anyone listening?
Itan threatens; anyone listening?Israel news photo

A high-ranking Iranian government official says Iran will respond to either an American or Israeli attack by "blowing up the heart of the State of Israel."  The spokesman is a representative of Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran's highest spiritual leader, in the country's most powerful military force, the Revolutionary Guard.

"Even if one Zionist or American rocket hits our land," said Mojtaba Zolnour, "Iranian rockets will explode in the heart of Israel even before the dust settles." He sounded the threat on Friday morning.

Just a week ago, Iran conducted an exercise in which it fired multiple long-range Shihab-3 ballistic missiles simultaneously. The rockets are able to reach any point in the Middle East, as well as some in Europe.

Western and Iranian negotiators are scheduled to begin their next round of talks on Iran's uranium enrichment program later this month. The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday to have President Barack Obama report by January 31 on his diplomatic efforts to have Iran stop its drive to acquire nuclear weapons.

Earlier this year, Obama set an informal deadline of "the end of this year" to see if negotiations with Iran would prove effective. Congress has now given him an extra month.

The new bill, which still requires Senate approval, also demands the levying of sanctions on Iran if that country does not accept the American offer "to engage in diplomatic talks" and also if it does not "suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities" related to its nuclear ambitions.