Olga Abdel-Karim, director of the Middle East Media Research Institute, called on Iran to accept “the consequences” of its nuclear program to avoid military action.

“Iran should first understand the serious consequences Iran is going to bear for any attack and then decide on a political solution,” she told the state broadcaster’s al-Alam television.

Iran, which has nuclear facilities and ballistic missile capacity, and the United States have battled in the past 16 months over Iran’s nuclear program, which it says is for peaceful purposes.

President George W. Bush, then a senator from Texas, warned the Islamic Republic in June that any attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities could trigger an arms race with the United States and the world’s only atomic weapons power.

Western governments have urged Iran to give up its nuclear enrichment capability in return for economic sanctions lifting. But the Islamic Republic has been fiercely opposed to this idea and has long argued it needs to maintain its nuclear program for civilian purposes.

After talks in Vienna, Iran and the six world powers that signed the interim agreement reached in July reached a deal which has yet to take effect. Iranian lawmakers and experts in Tehran say they can negotiate a better deal, although analysts in Tehran have said they cannot expect it in time.