Iran will target NATO's missile shield in neighbouring Turkey if it is threatened by military action, the commander of the aerospace division of the Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday.

"We are prepared to first target the NATO defence missile shield in Turkey if we are threatened. And then we'll move on to other targets," Amir-Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

Although Iranian officials have said several times they could retaliate with ballistic missiles against Israel if attacked, Hajizadeh's remark was the first time the Revolutionary Guards spoke of targeting Turkey.

Speculation has intensified in Israel that it was preparing air strikes on Iran to hit nuclear facilities following a November 8 report by the UN nuclear watchdog strongly suggesting Tehran was researching atomic weapons.

Hajizadeh, whose unit is in charge of Revolutionary Guards' missile systems, told a crowd of Basij militia members in the western city of Khorramabad that Iran's stance now was to "threaten in the face of threats," in line with a decree this month by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Turkey last year agreed to host an early warning radar system in its southeast as part of NATO's shield which the United States says is aimed at thwarting missile threats from the Middle East, particularly Iran.

Hajizadeh said last Monday the Revolutionary Guards' "greatest wish" was for Israel to attack Iran, so they could retaliate and relegate the Jewish state to "the dustbin of history."

Sanctions make nuclear talks 'more difficult': Ahmadinejad
Tehran (AFP) Nov 26, 2011 - New sanctions imposed on Iran by Western nations make the prospect of international talks on its nuclear programme "more difficult," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday in an interview with an Iranian state-run television network.

"They keep making it more difficult for them to negotiate with us," he said on the Jam e Jam channel, which is broadcast via satellite to the Iranian diaspora.

"You impose resolutions, sanctions, you use all tools against us, and you want to come and negotiate?" Ahmadinejad asked in a rhetorical jab at the United States and its allies.

The United States, Britain and Canada on Monday announced they were imposing fresh unilateral sanctions on Iran's financial sector. France is also pushing its European Union partners to cut Iranian oil imports.

Ahmadinejad said those positions undercut a push by the so-called P5+1 -- comprising the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia, plus non-member Germany -- to restart stalled talks with Iran.

"They always create limitations for themselves. We have always said we are ready for talks and cooperation. Talks are better than confrontation, but they seem to be clueless and keep going back to confrontation," he said.

Iranian officials have said through several rounds of UN sanctions and additional Western sanctions over the past two years that the measures made the chances of resuming negotiations more remote, although they never shut the door on them.

Ahmadinejad likewise did not exclude talks restarting, but he voiced scepticism. "Well, we'll negotiate but what do (5+1 countries) have left to tell us?" he asked.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, who represents the P5+1, last week urged Iran to resume the talks, which are aimed at removing Western fears that Tehran's nuclear programme is being used to create atomic weapons.

Iran, which has denied any military dimension to its nuclear activities, has said it is ready to return to negotiations, but insists that they include other topics outside the nuclear issue.

In the interview, Ahmadinejad said Iran was in the "same bloc" as Russia and China on the international stage, though each country was pursuing its own interests.

"China and Russia have a closer stance to us when it comes to international issues, rather than the US and its allies," he said.

"We cooperate with Russia and China, but we cannot expect them to sacrifice their national interests -- as they cannot expect us to do so," he said.

Opposition from Russia and China to the new Western sanctions prevented the measures from being brought to the UN Security Council for wider adoption.