Iran calls Israeli attack plan 'stupid'

First Deputy of Israeli Prime Minister Silvan Shalom has said: "it's not confirmed that Iran will reply to the probable Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, even if does reply, Israel has unlimited number of rockets. If Syria and organizations in Gaza and Lebanon attacked Israel after the Israeli attack on Iran, Israe will be able to stop the main facilities in those countries and territories through striking its infrastructure such as electricity generating stations and refineries". Shalom in his interview to Israeli radio stated: "he hopes not to use this option, asking international society to impose real sanctions on Iran forcing it to stop its nuclear program is a better option". Silvan Shalom gave the example of "boycotting the Iranian central bank". Israeli TV published a report on the Israeli preparations for an expected war with Iran as an Israeli video was published showing Israelis in Israeli cities renovating their shelters in anticipation of an expected war, preparing themselves with gas masks and hundreds of Israelis calling institutions asking for aids, as they are afraid from war consequences". One of the Israelis "Hanan Kvlteixei" said in his report that "I expect a war in 120 days". A specialised engineer for building shelters Gadi Kofe said: "we are facing a lot of demand to check shelters and renovating them. Our engineers are transferring from one shelter to another in order to check and renovate." He also said some Israelis still don’t have shelters or reinforced rooms. Protective masks project manager Eitan Araqbi said "there is a  100% increase in demand for protective masks. In the past we were distributing around 2,500 masks, now we are distributing 5,000 a day." However the project manager also warned "Israel has protective masks stock covers 60% only of Israelis, so there is 40% shortage". In the same context, Israeli TV published a report about Israeli political leadership negotiations on Iran war scenarios, as the military side expects thousands to rockets and hundreds of deaths in the war in the first weeks as it will be very hard and strong". American sources said that: "Israel will attack Iranian nuclear buildings at the beginning of next October." According to the Israeli scenario, attacks against Iran will ignite a regional war, which will continue for several weeks as the internal Israeli front expects 50,000 rockets to fall according to the secretary of war Ehud Barak who estimates that "those rockets will kill 500 Israeli". According to the report, in second Lebanon war 2006, Hezbollah launched 4,500 non accurate rockets which killed 56 Israelis. The majority of them where soldiers. However others discussing the likelihood of war in the near future have been dismissive of any war occurring before the American presidential election, especially as the US has not outright declared its support for military intervention at this stage of Iranian nuclear development. Iran on Tuesda dismissed Israeli threats of an imminent attack against it, explaining that even some Israeli officials realised such a "stupid" act would provoke "very severe consequences." "In our calculations, we aren't taking these claims very seriously because we see them as hollow and baseless," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters in a weekly briefing. "Even if some officials in the illegitimate regime (Israel) want to carry out such a stupid action, there are those inside (the Israeli government) who won't allow it because they know they would suffer very severe consequences from such an act," he said. Iran's defence minister, General Ahmad Vahidi, was quoted by the ISNA news agency saying that Israel "definitely doesn't have what it takes to endure Iran's might and will." He called the Israeli threats "a sign of weakness" by "brainless leaders." The comments were a response to bellicose rhetoric from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak in recent days suggesting they were thinking more seriously of military action against Iranian nuclear facilities. Israeli media have underlined the threat, reporting that a decision could be made within weeks. They have also highlighted opposition to the idea by current and former Israeli military officials. The United States has recently multiplied visits by top officials to Israel in what appears to be an attempt to dissuade the Jewish state from targeting the Islamic republic. "We continue to believe there is time and space for diplomacy," White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday. Israel insists that Iran is on the point of developing nuclear weapons, and says it reserves the right to act to prevent that. The Jewish state has in the past launched air strikes to destroy nuclear facilities in Iraq and, reportedly, in Syria to protect its own nuclear weapons monopoly, whose existence it refuses to officially confirm. Iran says its nuclear programme is exclusively for peaceful, civilian uses. In the past couple of years it has ramped up uranium enrichment to a level just a few steps short of military-grade fissile material, saying those stocks are needed to create medical isotopes. It has also refused UN nuclear inspectors access to suspect military installations. Renewed negotiations between Iran and the five top UN Security Council powers, plus Germany, have taken place this year. They have been downgraded after it became clear they were in an impasse, but not ended. In the meantime, Iran is suffering from increasingly tough US and EU economic sanctions that have crippled its all-important oil exports.