Tehran: Iran on Monday test-fired its two long-range missiles which it says could hit targets in arch-foe Israel, as the Revolutionary Guards staged war games for the second straight day.
The exercises coincide with heightened tension with the West after the UN nuclear watchdog revealed on Friday that Tehran was building a second uranium enrichment plant. Western countries suspect Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies.
On Sunday, the Guards launched the missile manoeuvres marking “Sacred Defence” week, which commemorates the start of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
Guards’ air force commander Hossein Salami said the force test-fired on Monday the Sejil and Shahab-3 versions of the long-range missiles.
“An improved version of Shahab-3 and the two-stage Sejil, powered by solid fuel, were fired,” Salami was quoted as saying by state-owned Arabic language Al-Alam television channel.
Iran’s Fars news agency said Sejil was test-fired for the first time during missile manoeuvres.
Iran’s state-owned English language Press TV channel broadcast footage of Shahab-3 lifting off in a thick ball of fire from desert terrain.
Iran says both missiles have a range of around 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles), which would put Israel, most Arab states and parts of Europe, including much of Turkey, within their range.
On Sunday, the Guards fired several short- and medium-range missiles, some with multiple warheads, state media reported.
The medium-range Shahab-1 and Shahab-2, with a range of between 300 kilometres and 700 kilometres, were successfully launched, Salami said.
“The missiles shot have precisely hit the targets,” he said.
Earlier, the Guards test-fired three types of short-range missiles — the Tondar-69, Fateh-110 and Zelzal. All three weapons, powered by solid fuel, have a range of between 100 and 400 kilometres.
On Monday, Salami issued a stern warning to Iran’s foes.
“Our response will be strong and destructive to those who threaten the existence, independence, freedom and values of our regime. They will regret it,” the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
He said the missile exercise was aimed at practising for “long wars, moving the missile installations from one point to another as well as simultaneous and non-simultaneous shots at convergent and divergent targets.”
On Sunday, Salami dismissed Israel as a potential threat, saying “that regime is not in a position that we need to comment about threats from it.”
The Jewish state is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed power in the Middle East.
The manoeuvres come after US President Barack Obama earlier this month scrapped the plan by his predecessor George W. Bush to deploy missile interceptors in Poland and a powerful tracking radar in the Czech Republic by 2013.
Obama said he had decided to replace the shield with a more mobile system using mainly sea-based interceptors.
In taking the decision, Obama emphasised the threat of Iran’s short-range and medium-range missiles instead of the potential danger of its longer-range weapons.
The White House said the intelligence community now believed Iran was developing shorter-range missiles “more rapidly than previously projected,” while progressing more slowly than expected with intercontinental missiles.
Iran has in the past threatened to target US bases in the region and to block the strategic Gulf Strait of Hormuz waterway for oil tankers if its nuclear sites are attacked.
Israel and the United States have never ruled out a military option to thwart Iran’s nuclear drive, which they suspect of having a military aim despite Tehran’s denial.
On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran was building a second uranium enrichment plant.
Iranian officials say that the second plant is also aimed for peaceful nuclear aims, but US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an interview with CBS network, said “we don’t believe that they can present convincing evidence that it’s only for peaceful purposes, but we are going to put them to the test on October 1.”
Iran and world powers meet in Geneva on Thursday to discuss Tehran’s disputed atomic programme.
Meanwhile Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi denied there was “any link” between the missile tests and the current nuclear controversy.
