Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Iranian commander: We can build missiles with broader range

Iran has the ability to build ballistic missiles with a broader range, a senior commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards said on Monday, Reuters reported.
 
Iran’s missiles currently cover a range of 2000 kilometers (1,240 miles) and many “enemy bases” are within 800 kilometers of the Islamic Republic, claimed Amir Ali Hajjizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards’ airspace division.
 
“We have the ability to build missiles with a broader range,” Hajjizadeh said, according to Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency.
 
He added, “We don’t have limitations from a technical perspective or by conventions with regard to missile range.”
 
The comments come amid continuing tensions between Iran and the US, in the wake of President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal and his reimposing of sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
 
Since the Trump administration has reimposed the sanctions, Iranian officials have repeatedly issued threats.
 
Last month, Hajjizadeh said that US bases in Afghanistan, the UAE and Qatar, and US aircraft carriers in the Gulf were within range of Iranian missiles.
 
Last week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani appeared to threaten to disrupt other countries’ oil shipments through the Gulf if Washington presses ahead with efforts to halt Iranian oil exports.
 
“If one day they want to prevent the export of Iran’s oil, then no oil will be exported from the Persian Gulf,” he said.
 
In addition, Iran has threatened to increase the range of its missiles and continue its ballistic missile tests, which the US says are in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
Iran denies its ballistic missile tests, which were one of the reasons cited by Trump in leaving the nuclear deal, are in violation of UN Security Council resolution 2231, which calls upon Iran to refrain for up to eight years from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons.
 
Rouhani has stressed that Iran will continue to produce missiles for its defense and does not consider that a violation of international agreements.