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In direct opposition of the West’s antagonism of Iran’s ballistic missile program, on February 8th Iran unveiled a new surface-to-surface ballistic missile, according to Iran’s state Fars News Agency and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Sepah News Agency.
The surface-to-surface missile was unveiled by Guard Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari and aerospace commander Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh.
The missile was also developed and built in an underground facility, at an undisclosed location.
“Displaying this missile production facility deep underground is an answer to Westerners … who think they can stop us from reaching our goals through sanctions and threats,” Jafari was reported as saying.
“Europeans talk of limiting our defensive capability while they have the audacity (to allow) their offensive power be used to attack innocent people all over the world,” he added.
According to Hajizadeh the new missile had a “destructive power” twice that of the Zolfaghar version, which Iran used for the first time in October to strike a jihadist base in Syria.
On February 6th, Hajizadeh told a forum in Tehran that Iran’s “missile power is not negotiable.”
“This deterrence power has been created for the country and we do not hold talks about it with anyone at all,” he said.
“Iran has voluntarily limited the range of its missiles to 2,000 kilometres, but that is still enough to hit its arch-enemy Israel and US bases in the Middle East,” Channel News Asia reported.
On February 7th, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri said that “ Iran is ready to foil arrogant and expansionist states’ plots and it will not be intimidated by their threats, aimed at forcing Iran to withdraw its defensive missile program as well as its regional interests.”
“Iran is ready to share its experience in fighting terrorism and extremism with friendly countries and promote military cooperation with them,” the commander added.
Separately, on February 4th ran’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said that the Islamic Republic’s new satellite, the “Dousti” is ready to be put in orbit soon.
The minister said two international organizations have monitored Iran’s space program and confirmed its peaceful nature. Regardless, the US government has criticized Iran’s space program for possibly helping the nation develop nuclear weapon capabilities, according to the AP.
Space.com claimed that satellite imagery allegedly showed evidence that Iran’s satellite launch failed. It happened between February 5th and 6th.
Earlier, on January 15th a previous Iranian launch failed, according to a report from AP News. That imaging satellite, called Payam, failed during operation of the rocket’s third stage. This was a newer, larger rocket than that used for the Doosti launch.
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