A military exhibition displays the Shahab-3 missile under a picture of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, in 2008. (photo credit: AP/Hasan Sarbakhshian)
Iran has given ballistic missiles to its “Shi’ite proxies in Iraq and is developing the capacity to build more there to deter attacks on its interests in the Middle East and to give it the means to hit regional foes,” Reuters claimed on August 31 citing “Iranian, Iraqi and Western sources”.
In its article Reuters claimed that Iranian statements saying its ballistic missile program is defensive are untrue.
“According to three Iranian officials, two Iraqi intelligence sources and two Western intelligence sources, Iran has transferred short-range ballistic missiles to allies in Iraq over the last few months. Five of the officials said it was helping those groups to start making their own.
“The logic was to have a backup plan if Iran was attacked,” one senior Iranian official told Reuters. “The number of missiles is not high, just a couple of dozen, but it can be increased if necessary.”
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The Zelzal, Fateh-110 and Zolfaqar missiles in question have ranges of about 200 km to 700 km, putting Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh or the Israeli city of Tel Aviv within striking distance if the weapons were deployed in southern or western Iraq,” Reuters said in ints article.
According to the report, the Iraqi government and military have both declined to comment.
The Reuters article openly supports the main US narrative that Iran is actively expanding its missile program for some kind of agressive actions against the US key regional allies – Israel and Saudi Arabia. Previously, Washington has repeatedly accusing Iran of providing missiles to Yemen’s Houthis and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
