DAMASCUS, 17 April 2006 — Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani yesterday warned the United States against attacking Iran over its nuclear program, saying such a move would not be in Washington’s interests.

“Iran has not excluded the possibility of an American aggression against it,” the influential Rafsanjani told a press conference held alongside Syrian Vice President Farouk Shara before arriving in Kuwait to reassure Gulf nations on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“Such an event would in no way be in the interests of the United States or of the region, including Iran,” he said.

Reports emerged last week that Washington has contingency plans for a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities where it believes Tehran is developing nuclear weapons. Iran, facing potential UN Security Council sanctions over its nuclear program, vows it only wants nuclear power and not the bomb.

“Iran is undergoing psychological warfare and is resolved to defend its rights,” Rafsanjani said, adding that “the United States will not risk using force.” Shara said that Iran has the right “to develop its own nuclear technology for peaceful purposes conforming with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”

Iran and Syria are both the subject of US sanctions, having been accused of sponsoring terrorism. Damascus and Tehran deny the charges.

Shara also said Syria and Iran were helping to stabilize neighboring Iraq, where Washington has accused both countries of supporting insurgency groups. “Syria and Iran are cooperating with neighboring countries to help Iraq ensure its stability, its unity and its territorial integrity,” Shara said.

The two countries will help Baghdad “form a stable government for the next four years, capable of pacifying Iraq, getting a timetable for the departure of American forces and reconstructing what was destroyed by the war.”

Iran too appears convinced it can deter or even win a military confrontation with the United States, with the regime buoyed by high oil prices and American woes in Iraq.

The regime gave fresh signals yesterday that it was in no mood for a compromise over its nuclear program as it continued to flout a UN Security Council demand for a freeze in uranium enrichment by April 28.

And in another display of defiance, a hard-line Iranian group said it had managed to enroll 55,000 people for suicide attacks against Israel and Western powers.

Pope Benedict XVI also weighed into the dispute, using his Easter message to voice the need “serious and honest” talks which would help achieve “an honorable solution” for all parties. “We are trying to find a diplomatic solution for our (nuclear) problem, and the United States should be aware that it is not in a position to create another crisis in the region,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the official news agency IRNA.

“More than three years have passed since the United States invaded Iraq and after all these years they are now asking for help,” he said, referring to Washington’s request for talks with Tehran on the insurgency.

The crisis over Iran’s nuclear ambitions has worsened over the past week following the regime’s announcement that its scientists managed to enrich uranium to the level needed to make reactor fuel. Iran insists its program is strictly peaceful, but enrichment technology can also be extended to make atomic weapons ­— hence the UN demand for a moratorium while an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) probe continues.