TEHRAN -- Military experts at the U.S. Department of Defense have warned that if Washington launches any war campaign against the Islamic Republic, it will suffer 'heavy and big' blows by losing the opportunity of the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf.

The Arabic weekly ****'Al-Moharrar Al-Arabi' ***quoted the experts on Friday as saying that Iran is planning to launch a crash program in case of any U.S. attack to block the shipping traffic, particularly U.S. troops, in the Persian Gulf waters for the next 10 to 15 years.

It wrote that Iran, if attacked, will sustain heavy damages to U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf, including the oil reserves.

"This would bear catastrophic consequences for the U.S., Europe, Japan and Iran's Arab neighbors in the Persian Gulf region," the weekly cautioned.

It also wrote that there is an influential political junta in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush that strongly advocates a military action against Iran to follow Washington's war campaign against Baghdad.

The junta believes that if the White House fails to take a tough measure against the Islamic Republic after attacking Iraq, the U.S. will eventually face the same incidents of the 60s and 70 in South-east Asia.

The weekly also wrote that the junta believes that the military action against Iran must be carried out because Iran's access to nuclear weapons would be a strategic revolution in the region.

Based on this report, as opposed to the positions of this group, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) believes that the volatile situation inside the Islamic Republic calls on the U.S. to exercise patience and look for the outcome of political developments in the country.