Iran fires short-range missiles in war games

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

Barack Obama's bid for talks a mask: Iran

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."

Source: The Australian

Iran missile test failed: US observers

August 20, 2008

AN Iranian missile test aimed at putting a dummy satellite into orbit failed, a US defence official said today.
"We detected a missile launch from Iran on August 16 and our reports indicated it was unsuccessful," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It did not reach orbit."

Iran announced on Sunday that it had successfully launched into space a missile with a dummy satellite. There were conflicting accounts by Iranian officials as to whether the missile was carrying a satellite or simply capable of carrying one.

A US intelligence official, who asked not to be identified, said the Iranian missile failed shortly after lift-off.

"It was a rather dismal display," the official said. "It certainly didn't get very far off the ground, and it definitely did not meet the overall objectives that the Iranians reported the test achieved."

Source: The Australian