The Revolutionary Guards carried out test firings of missiles with a range of 1,700 km. According to a former head of Iran’s nuclear program, who spoke on the country’s public television, Tehran has the capacity to manufacture its own weapons.
A video released by the Guardians and broadcast by state television on Tuesday shows two missiles, believed to belong to the Fateh family of ballistic missiles, fired from containers on the Shahid Mahdavi warship.
The report says the missiles have a range of 1,700 kilometers (nearly 1,056 miles).
The essay comes against the backdrop of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and tensions in the Middle East, including attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on international shipping in the Red Sea.
A former head of Tehran’s nuclear program says the Islamic Republic has all the elements needed to build a nuclear weapon.
In a late-night broadcast on Iranian state television, Ali Akbar Salehi said the country had all the parts needed to make a weapon.
“What does a car need? It needs a chassis, an engine, a steering wheel“, he declared, before being interrupted by the host of the show who asked him if he was “diplomatic“.
“If you ask me if you built the gearbox, I would say yes. I will answer yes. But each of them is built for its own purpose“continued Mr. Salehi.
Iran has enriched its uranium
After the collapse of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran continued nuclear enrichment just below weapons-grade levels.
Tehran has accumulated enough enriched uranium to make several weapons, but U.S. intelligence agencies and others believe Iran has not yet launched a weapons program.
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog warned Tuesday that Iran is “not fully transparent” about its atomic program.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, referred to Mr. Salehi’s remarks in Iran when he issued his warning at the world summit of governments in Dubai, across the Persian Gulf.
“There is increasing talk of nuclear weapons, including in Iran recently. A very senior official said: “In fact, we have everything, everything is dismantled. Well let me know what you got“.
However, he noted:an accumulation of complexities” in the Middle East as part of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
It was long believed that Israel had its own nuclear weapons program.
Since 2022, Iranian officials have spoken openly about what Tehran has long denied, as it enriches uranium to previously unheard levels to obtain weapons-grade materials: The Islamic Republic is ready to make a atomic weapon at will.
However, Mr. Salehi’s comments represent a new escalation. He led the Civil Atomic Energy Organization of Iran under the presidency of Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate within the Iranian theocracy that sealed the 2015 deal with world powers.
Iran”presents a face that is not completely transparent regarding its nuclear activities. Of course, this increases the dangers“, warned Mr. Grossi.