Iran is to unveil a new fighter jet next week and continue developing missile capabilities as a top priority, Iranian Minister of Defense Brigadier General Amir Hatami said on Saturday, defying new US sanctions aimed at curbing Tehran’s missile program and regional influence.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Navy on Saturday announced that it has mounted a locally built advanced defensive weapons system on one of its warships for the first time as tensions mount with the US military in the Persian Gulf.
US President Donald Trump in May withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that curbed Tehran’s nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions relief.
Trump said that the deal was deeply flawed, as it had not curbed Iran’s ballistic missile program or reined in its support for proxies in conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Iran has dismissed any direct talks with Washington to resolve the issues raised by Trump.
“Our top priority has been development of our missile program. We are in a good position in this field, but we need to develop it,” Hatami was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.
“We will present a plane on National Defense Industry Day and people will see it fly, and the equipment designed for it,” Hatami added.
Iran celebrates National Defense Industry Day on Wednesday
Iran in 2013 unveiled what it said was a new, domestically built fighter jet, called Qaher 313, but some experts expressed doubts about the viability of the aircraft at the time.
Iran’s functional air force has been limited to perhaps as few as a few dozen strike aircraft, either Russian or aging US models acquired before the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi on Saturday said that “coastal and sea testing of the short-range defense Kamand system were concluded successfully,” and said the system was “mounted ... on a warship and will be mounted on a second ship soon,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
The Iranian Page semi-protected Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) earlier this month said that it held war games in the Gulf aimed at “confronting possible threats” by enemies.
US Central Command said that it had seen increased Iranian naval activity, extending to the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway for oil shipments that the IRGC has threatened to block.
Iran has developed a large domestic arms industry in the face of international sanctions and embargoes that have barred it from importing many weapons.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in