Iran ? The Iranian military on Wednesday rejected a statement from a top Revolutionary Guards commander that Israel would be Iran’s first target in response to any U.S. attack, an Iranian news agency reported.

Brig. Gen. Alireza Afshar, deputy to the chief of Iran’s military staff, said the statement by Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghani “is his personal view and has no validity as far as the Iranian military officials are concerned,” according to the Entekhab News Agency.

Dehghani was quoted by the Iranian Student News Agency on Tuesday as saying: “We have announced that wherever (in Iran) America does make any mischief, the first place we target will be Israel.”

His threat came after the Iranian president’s call for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and added to international concerns over Iran’s suspect nuclear program.

Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres reacted to Dehghani’s warning with a call for Iran to scrap its nuclear program and a warning of his own: “Remember that Israel is exceptionally strong and knows how to defend itself.”