Correspondents in Washington and Tehran | November 14, 2008
IRAN fired a rhetorical salvo at Barack Obama yesterday - describing the US president-elect as someone who would "put on a mask of friendship, but with the objective of betrayal" - hours after launching a missile that Tehran claimed could hit Israel and US military bases in the Gulf.
Senator Obama has signalled that his administration would be prepared to open direct talks with Tehran to resolve international concerns over Iran's nuclear program - a shift in Washington from the hard line of the Bush administration on the issue.
But despite the promise of a softer approach from the incoming US administration, Iran's Revolutionary Guard was still hostile yesterday.
"People who put on a mask of friendship, but with the objective of betrayal, and who enter from the angle of negotiations without preconditions, are more dangerous," Hossein Taeb, deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, said yesterday, according to the semi-official Mehr News Agency.
"The power-holders in the new US government are trying to regain their lost influence with a tactical change in their foreign diplomacy. They are shifting from a hard conflict to a soft attack," Mr Taeb said.
Senator Obama has advocated "direct tough presidential diplomacy with Iran, without preconditions", according to his campaign website, but has stressed that a nuclear-armed Iran would be unacceptable.
In comments that may have set the tone for some of the rhetoric being used to describe the incoming US administration, The Washington Post reported that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the disagreements between the two countries were deep-rooted and went beyond political differences.
"This is because of the numerous conspiracies of the US government against the Iranian country and nation throughout the past 50 years, and not only have they not apologised for this but they have continued their arrogant actions," Ayatollah Khamenei said, speaking at a commemoration of the taking of 52 hostages at the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.
Ayatollah Khamenei has the final say in all matters of Iranian foreign policy.
The Bush administration has demanded that Iran suspend uranium enrichment before talks can take place - a precondition Iran has rejected on the grounds that its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes only.
Washington yesterday condemned the claim by Tehran that it had test-fired a new surface-to-surface missile with a range of 2000km, capable of reaching Israel and US military bases in the Gulf.
Iran's Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said the new Sajil missile had "extremely high capabilities". He was quoted as saying: "It will only land on the heads of those enemies who want to commit aggression and invade the Islamic Republic."
Despite the claims of a new weapon system, Western experts said it was probably just another name given to the Shahab 3 missile, which has been test-fired on previous occasions.
The timing of the latest launch was seen as a greeting to Senator Obama as well as a deliberate move by Tehran to try to deter either Israel or the US from taking military action against Iran over its suspected nuclear weapons program before US President George W. Bush hands over to the Democrat president-elect on January 20.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: "Iran's development of ballistic missiles is contrary to UN Security Council resolutions and completely inconsistent with Iran's obligations to the world."
He said the Iranians should refrain from further missile tests "if they truly seek to gain the trust of the world".
Andrew Brookes of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said: "I think the Iranians just keeping on rejigging the same missile and putting a new logo on it.
"It's basically the Shahab 3 with a different name, and the purpose of the test firing is to tell the world, 'Don't forget us - we have missiles that can reach 2000km'.
"However, the launch of these missiles is not that meaningful because the Iranians have not developed an advanced miniaturised warhead to fit into the front end, unless they are getting help from North Korea or Russia, and Moscow says it is not supporting Iran's missile program.
"So the missiles are rather like the World War II V2 bombs, which scared people but didn't cause mass casualties."
Duncan Lennox, editor of Jane's Strategic Weapons, said: "You can never be sure with the Iranians. From the photographs they have released, the missile looks like the Ashoura which they launched a year ago. It's a solid propellant missile with a triconic nose shape, like the teat on a baby's bottle. The Shahab 3A also has the same nose shape.
"What is not clear is whether the test firing took place today or whether it's a photograph taken out of the archives," he said.
"But from the pictures it looks like a two-stage missile with a range of 1900km to 2000km."
IRAN fired a rhetorical salvo at Barack Obama yesterday - describing the US president-elect as someone who would "put on a mask of friendship, but with the objective of betrayal" - hours after launching a missile that Tehran claimed could hit Israel and US military bases in the Gulf.
Senator Obama has signalled that his administration would be prepared to open direct talks with Tehran to resolve international concerns over Iran's nuclear program - a shift in Washington from the hard line of the Bush administration on the issue.
But despite the promise of a softer approach from the incoming US administration, Iran's Revolutionary Guard was still hostile yesterday.
"People who put on a mask of friendship, but with the objective of betrayal, and who enter from the angle of negotiations without preconditions, are more dangerous," Hossein Taeb, deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, said yesterday, according to the semi-official Mehr News Agency.
"The power-holders in the new US government are trying to regain their lost influence with a tactical change in their foreign diplomacy. They are shifting from a hard conflict to a soft attack," Mr Taeb said.
Senator Obama has advocated "direct tough presidential diplomacy with Iran, without preconditions", according to his campaign website, but has stressed that a nuclear-armed Iran would be unacceptable.
In comments that may have set the tone for some of the rhetoric being used to describe the incoming US administration, The Washington Post reported that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the disagreements between the two countries were deep-rooted and went beyond political differences.
"This is because of the numerous conspiracies of the US government against the Iranian country and nation throughout the past 50 years, and not only have they not apologised for this but they have continued their arrogant actions," Ayatollah Khamenei said, speaking at a commemoration of the taking of 52 hostages at the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.
Ayatollah Khamenei has the final say in all matters of Iranian foreign policy.
The Bush administration has demanded that Iran suspend uranium enrichment before talks can take place - a precondition Iran has rejected on the grounds that its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes only.
Washington yesterday condemned the claim by Tehran that it had test-fired a new surface-to-surface missile with a range of 2000km, capable of reaching Israel and US military bases in the Gulf.
Iran's Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said the new Sajil missile had "extremely high capabilities". He was quoted as saying: "It will only land on the heads of those enemies who want to commit aggression and invade the Islamic Republic."
Despite the claims of a new weapon system, Western experts said it was probably just another name given to the Shahab 3 missile, which has been test-fired on previous occasions.
The timing of the latest launch was seen as a greeting to Senator Obama as well as a deliberate move by Tehran to try to deter either Israel or the US from taking military action against Iran over its suspected nuclear weapons program before US President George W. Bush hands over to the Democrat president-elect on January 20.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: "Iran's development of ballistic missiles is contrary to UN Security Council resolutions and completely inconsistent with Iran's obligations to the world."
He said the Iranians should refrain from further missile tests "if they truly seek to gain the trust of the world".
Andrew Brookes of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said: "I think the Iranians just keeping on rejigging the same missile and putting a new logo on it.
"It's basically the Shahab 3 with a different name, and the purpose of the test firing is to tell the world, 'Don't forget us - we have missiles that can reach 2000km'.
"However, the launch of these missiles is not that meaningful because the Iranians have not developed an advanced miniaturised warhead to fit into the front end, unless they are getting help from North Korea or Russia, and Moscow says it is not supporting Iran's missile program.
"So the missiles are rather like the World War II V2 bombs, which scared people but didn't cause mass casualties."
Duncan Lennox, editor of Jane's Strategic Weapons, said: "You can never be sure with the Iranians. From the photographs they have released, the missile looks like the Ashoura which they launched a year ago. It's a solid propellant missile with a triconic nose shape, like the teat on a baby's bottle. The Shahab 3A also has the same nose shape.
"What is not clear is whether the test firing took place today or whether it's a photograph taken out of the archives," he said.
"But from the pictures it looks like a two-stage missile with a range of 1900km to 2000km."
Source: The Australian
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