Iran to reveal details of new weapons

 Iran’s Defense Ministry has announced plans to make public details of the latest developments in the country’s weapons arsenal.

Speaking to reporters after a Sunday cabinet meeting, Brigadier-General Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar said Iran’s defensive capabilities are now based on equipment manufactured by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

In early July, the IRGC held an extensive military exercise, during which Iran successfully test-fired advanced shore-to-sea, surface-to-surface and sea-to-air missiles.

Iran also tested the upgraded Shahab-3 missile equipped with a one-ton conventional warhead and capable of hitting targets within a 2,000-kilometer range.

In August, IRGC chief Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari announced that Iran had developed a high-tech naval weapons system capable of targeting any warship within a range of 300 kilometers from its shores.

“The design and production technology used in this weapon is completely Iranian and has never been employed by any other country,” Maj. Gen. Jafari added.

Iran has stepped up efforts to demonstrate its defense capabilities amid escalating US and Israeli threats to strike the country’s nuclear facilities.

While the UN nuclear watchdog has confirmed that Iran is enriching uranium to 3 percent, a rate consistent with electricity generation,
Washington and Tel Aviv accuse the country of making efforts to build a nuclear bomb.

The two allies have repeatedly threatened to launch military strikes against Iran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), should the country continue nuclear enrichment.

Iran cites diplomacy as the only acceptable means for clarifying the nature of its nuclear program and ending the nuclear standoff. However, Tehran has warned that Israel and 32 US bases in the region will be targeted should the country come under attack.

A recent study by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a prestigious American think tank, found that a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities ‘is unlikely’ to delay the country’s program.

The ISIS study also cautioned that an attack against Iran would backfire by compelling the country to acquire nuclear weaponry.

MD/HGH