TEHRAN: Iran said it successfully test-fired short-range missiles during military drills Sunday by the elite Revolutionary Guards in a show of force days after the US and its allies warned Tehran over a newly revealed underground nuclear facility it was secretly constructing.
Gen. Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Air Force, said Iran also tested a multiple missile launcher for the first time. The official English-language Press TV showed pictures of at least two missiles being fired simultaneously and said they were from Sunday’s drill in a central Iran desert.
“We are going to respond to any military action in a crushing manner and it doesn’t make any difference which country or regime has launched the aggression,” state media quoted Salami as saying. He said the missiles successfully hit their targets.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meanwhile, said the disclosure of the site could result in more economic penalties against Iran. He played down the effectiveness of military strikes against the nuclear site, however, arguing that pressuring Tehran economically and diplomatically would have a better chance of changing the Tehran government’s policies. “The reality is, there is no military option that does anything more than buy time,” he told CNN in an interview broadcast Sunday.
By US estimates, Iran is one to five years away from having nuclear weapons capability, although US intelligence believes that Iranian leaders have not yet made the decision to build a weapon.
