Iran yesterday unveiled a new cruise missile with a range of 1,300km, state television reported, as the Middle Eastern country displays its achievements during celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“With a range of more than 1,300km ... this cruise missile needs a very short time for its preparedness and can fly at a low altitude,” Iranian Minister of Defense Amir Hatami said in remarks carried by state television during the unveiling ceremony.
Hatami said the new surface-to-surface missile, named Hoveizeh, was from the Soumar family of cruise missiles, which was unveiled in 2015.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Iran last month said its bid to launch a satellite failed after Tehran ignored US warnings to avoid such activity.
Washington warned Tehran this month against undertaking three planned rocket launches that it said would violate a UN Security Council resolution because they use ballistic-missile technology.
Iran on Friday began celebrations to mark the anniversary Islamic Revolution, which toppled the US-backed shah, overturned 2,500 years of monarchical rule and brought Shiite clerics to power.
The climactic events that year — from revolutionaries in the streets of Tehran to blindfolded American hostages in the US embassy hostage crisis months later — not only changed Iran’s history, but also helped shape today’s Middle East.
The festivities start every year on Feb. 1 — the day ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned home from France after 14 years in exile to become the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Across Iran, sirens wailed from trains and boats, while bells tolled at 9:33am — the exact time that Khomeini’s chartered Air France Boeing 747 touched down 40 years ago at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran.
The festivities, known as the “Ten Days of Dawn,” conclude on Feb. 11, the date Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s government collapsed after brief clashes between some army units and revolutionary gunmen.
As part of the celebrations, many Tehran buildings, mostly government institutions and offices, were draped in the colors of Iran’s green, white and red flag, while multicolored lights decorated the main streets.
Car drivers turned on their headlights and honked in celebration as helicopters dropped clusters of flowers along Khomeini’s route from the airport to the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran, where he made a speech and where his tomb stands today.
Iranian officials — including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani — paid homage on Wednesday at Khomeini’s tomb “to renew allegiance” to him.
At a ceremony at the tomb on Friday, Ahmad Jannati, head of a constitutional watchdog that vets candidates for presidential and parliamentary elections, criticized what he described as US psychological warfare against Iran in the form of “cruel sanctions.”
“The enemies today have targeted the economy” to make Iranians feel pessimistic about Islam, said Jannati, a cleric.
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