It comes just two days after the UN nuclear watchdog disclosed that Tehran was building a second uranium enrichment plant. Iran's state-owned Al-Alam and Press TV channels reported that the missiles fired were of the Tondar and Fateh 110 type.
The elite Revolutionary Guards Corps said yesterday it would begin missile war games codenamed Great Prophet 4 from Sunday in a bid to “maintain and improve” the deterrent capability of Iran's armed forces.
The Guards' air force commander Hossein Salami said the main aim of the manoeuvres was to “evaluate the technical developments recently achieved in surface-to-surface missiles,” Revolutionary Guards website Sepahnews reported.
Salami said there would be “simultaneous” and “successive” firing of missiles in the exercises which would last for several days.
Iran stages regular military manoeuvres in strategic Gulf waters, showcasing its long- and medium-range missiles as well as other weaponry.
The Islamic republic has in the past threatened to target US bases in the region and to block the strategic Gulf Strait of Hormuz waterway for oil tankers if its nuclear sites are attacked.
On September 17, US President Barack Obama decided to halt a drive launched by the previous administration of George W Bush to deploy by 2013 missile interceptors in Poland and a powerful tracking radar in the neighbouring Czech Republic.
Washington had said the plan aimed to ward off threats from Iran, but Russia slammed it as a menace to security on its doorstep. Warsaw and Prague broke from the crumbling communist bloc in 1989 and joined NATO in 1999.
Obama said he had decided to replace the shield with a more mobile system using mainly sea-based missile interceptors.
Sunday's missile exercise comes two days after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran was building a second uranium enrichment plant, sparking concern by Western leaders.
Israel and the United States have never ruled out a military option to thwart Iran's nuclear drive, which they suspect of having a military aim. Tehran denies the charge.
Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said yesterday the new plant on the road from Tehran to the holy city of Qom will be put under the supervision of the IAEA.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed the decision to grant access to the IAEA.
“It is always welcome when Iran makes a decision to comply with the international rules and regulations, and particularly with respect to the IAEA,” she told reporters in New York.
Hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who returned from the United Nations today, said the disclosure of the new facility was a success for Iran.
“This issue was turned around in a way that (now) we believe they regret bringing it up,” he told reporters of the anger expressed by Western leaders over the plant.
“They may pursue this issue through the media but it has become a firm blow to the arrogance,” in reference to the United States and other Western powers, he said.
The announcement of the new facility came just days before an October 1 meeting in Geneva between Iran and six world powers to discuss Tehran's disputed atomic program.
Source: The Australian
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