Iran said it completed two days of missile tests that included launching its longest-range missiles yesterday, weapons capable of carrying a warhead and striking Israel, US military bases in the Middle East and parts of Europe.
State TV said the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which controls Iran’s missile program, tested upgraded versions of the medium-range Shahab-3 and Sajjil missiles, which have a range of up to 2,000km. It was the third and final round of missile tests in two days of drills by the IRGC.
The Sajjil-2 missile is Iran’s most advanced two-stage surface-to-surface missile and is powered entirely by solid-fuel, while the older Shahab-3 uses a combination of solid and liquid fuel in its most advanced form, which is also known as the Qadr-F1.
Solid fuel is seen as a technological breakthrough for any missile program as it increases the accuracy of missiles in reaching targets.
The war games come at a time when Iran is under intense international pressure to fully disclose its nuclear activities.
They began on Sunday, two days after the US and its allies disclosed that Iran had been secretly developing an underground uranium enrichment facility and warned the country it must open the site to international inspection or face harsher international sanctions.
General Hossein Salami, head of the IRGC Air Force, said on Sunday the drills were meant to show Tehran is prepared to crush any military threat from another country.
Meanwhile, Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi warned Israel yesterday against launching any attack on the Islamic Republic, saying it would only speed up the Jewish state’s own demise.
“If this happens, which of course we do not foresee, its ultimate result would be that it expedites the Zionist regime’s last breath,” Vahidi said on state television.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly expressed alarm over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and refused to rule out pre-emptive military action to stop Iran developing an atomic weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear work is for peaceful power generation, has often shrugged off the possibility of any such strikes.
Vahidi, a former IRGC commander, said that in the event of an Israeli attack, its “lifespan, which is today coming to an end, would be speeded up.”
He said that the “Zionist regime,” the term Iran uses for Israel, was on a “slope of destruction.”
On Saturday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said a newly disclosed nuclear facility in Iran was proof the Islamic Republic was seeking nuclear weapons and called on the world to make an “unequivocal” response.
Israel, widely assumed to be the Middle East’s sole nuclear power, has described Iran’s uranium enrichment as a threat to its existence. It says “all options” are on the table in preventing Tehran from building nuclear missiles.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s spokesman said yesterday that Iran’s missile tests were “a matter of concern,” but added that London’s focus remained on Tehran’s atomic program.
NEXT GENERATION: The four plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park, designated Fab 25, would consist of four 1.4-nanometer wafer manufacturing plants, TSMC said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to begin construction of four new plants later this year, with the aim to officially launch production of 2-nanometer semiconductor wafers by late 2028, Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau director-general Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said. Hsu made the announcement at an event on Friday evening celebrating the Central Taiwan Science Park’s 22nd anniversary. The second phase of the park’s expansion would commence with the initial construction of water detention ponds and other structures aimed at soil and water conservation, Hsu said. TSMC has officially leased the land, with the Central Taiwan Science Park having handed over the
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
AUKUS: The Australian Ambassador to the US said his country is working with the Pentagon and he is confident that submarine issues will be resolved Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd on Friday said that if Taiwan were to fall to China’s occupation, it would unleash China’s military capacities and capabilities more broadly. He also said his country is working with the Pentagon on the US Department of Defense’s review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved. Rudd, who served as Australian prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and for three months in 2013, made the remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding US-Australia alliance and his close relationship with the US Undersecretary
RSS