An Iranian photograph showing a cluster of missile launches was apparently altered to add a fourth missile lifting off from a desert range, a defense analyst said on Thursday.
“There’s no doubt the photo was doctored,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the Non-Proliferation Program for the London-based International Institute For Strategic Studies.
The image, posted on Wednesday on a Web site run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, showed four missiles moments after launch, leaving trails of glowing exhaust and clouds of billowing brown dust.
The scene was described as part of military maneuvers in which nine missiles were test-fired, including an enhanced version of the Shahab-3.
Criticism
Iranian officials say the new missile has a range of 2,012km, which would enable a strike on Israel and most of the Middle East. The tests drew immediate criticism from Washington.
The photo on the Sepah News site was replaced on Thursday with an image showing three missiles — which appear to be the same missiles shown in the earlier photo.
In place of the fourth missile, however, the photo showed one still on the ground in its launch position and what appears to be a vehicle nearby.
Fitzpatrick, a former US State Department official who follows arms control issues, believes the photo was manipulated after the missile malfunctioned.
“The whole purpose of these launches was to demonstrate Iran’s capabilities, and a photo showing one out of four rockets failing doesn’t have the intended impact,” Fitzpatrick said.
There was no immediate comment from Iranian government officials on the photos.
The image with four launches was taken off the Sepah site’s main news page, but both photos were on its archive on Thursday.
In related news, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will hold talks on ending the atomic standoff next Saturday in Geneva, the official IRNA news agency reported yesterday.
Negotiations
“They are to continue their negotiations about the package on Saturday, July 19,” IRNA quoted Ahmad Khadem al-Melleh, spokesman for the secretariat of Iran’s supreme national security council, as saying.
World powers last month presented Iran with a package aimed at ending the five-year-old nuclear crisis, notably offering Tehran technological incentives in exchange for suspending the sensitive process of uranium enrichment.
Solana’s spokeswoman refused on Wednesday to confirm a press report from Tehran that he would visit the Iranian capital next Saturday.
“In principle, we are expecting a meeting” with Iranian authorities “before the end of the month,” Cristina Gallach said.
But she added that “neither the date nor the meeting’s location” had been set.
Western governments say they fear Iran’s nuclear drive is aimed at making atomic weapons, a charge that Tehran vehemently denies. It says its nuclear program is for purely peaceful ends, to provide energy when fossil fuels run out.
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