Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announced Saturday that restrictions on the range of the country’s missiles have been lifted, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reports, raising the prospect of Tehran pursuing weapons capable of reaching targets beyond its previously declared 2,000-kilometer limit.
Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebbi made the announcement at a news conference in Tehran. Asked whether a directive to respond to threats without geographic restrictions meant the missile-range restriction had been removed, he replied, “This restriction has been lifted for us.”
Mohebbi did not identify a missile capable of exceeding the previous limit or present evidence of a newly operational weapon. Instead, he emphasized that Iran needed to demonstrate its capabilities in practice rather than announce them in advance. “Our duty is to show our capabilities on the battlefield,” he said.
The announcement followed instructions from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei directing the armed forces to respond immediately and effectively to threats without geographic limitations. Tasnim said Khamenei also ordered an overhaul of Iran’s military target database to cover American and Israeli assets.
Mohebbi described Iran’s approach as asymmetric warfare and claimed it could strike adversaries at locations they would not anticipate. His remarks outlined an expanded targeting policy, but left unanswered how quickly Iran could translate that policy into an actual increase in missile range.
The previous 2,000-kilometer range already put Israel and much of the Middle East within reach. The Associated Press reported that Iran is not known to possess missiles exceeding that limit.
