Status: 03/12/2022 03:37 am
Iran has been developing medium-range missiles for decades. Now they are one of the reasons why Israel feels threatened by an approaching nuclear deal. How far has the program progressed?
“A break due to external factors” is necessary in the nuclear negotiations between Iran, the members of the UN Security Council and Germany, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell recently tweeted. As coordinator, however, he wants to work to ensure that the current stalemate is overcome – because the final version of an agreement text is almost complete.
A week ago, Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was in Tehran. It then said the agency had agreed a roadmap with the regime to get outstanding answers on Iran’s nuclear program, paving the way for a renewal of the JCPOA. According to observers, this could have led to the rapid signing of a new agreement.
Meanwhile, however, Russia is putting the brakes on Western sanctions after Russian troops attacked Ukraine and is demanding that its economic ties with Iran be exempted from the sanctions. There is also apparently a new dispute over the details of the agreement between Washington and Tehran. One reason could be Tehran’s missile program.
Iran has been developing missiles since 1984
Mehdi Bakhtiari, editor-in-chief of the Tasnim news agency, is considered the mouthpiece of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which the United States has classified as a terrorist organization. He talks at length about the history of Iranian missile construction, which he dates back to 1984, when Iraq attacked Iran. The regime was unable to defend itself adequately because it did not have the appropriate weapons technology. Iran therefore bought eight Russian-made Scud missiles from the Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi. The Iranian army fired six of the rockets at Iraq, the other two were dismantled to study the technology and to be able to replicate rockets themselves.
Today, Iran’s medium-range missiles are one of the reasons why Israel views an approaching nuclear deal with great skepticism. A senior official at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, who does not want his name published, said in an interview with the ARDIran already has hundreds, if not thousands, of short- and medium-range missiles.
The numbers are unverifiable, and the Israeli government is known for sometimes alarmist prophecies. However, with medium-range missiles with a range of 1,100 kilometers, which he speaks of, among other things, Iran could hit Israel. From the point of view of the Israeli government, it is particularly worrying that the Iranian missile program was not part of the previous JCPOA nuclear agreement, which was terminated by ex-US President Donald Trump in 2018 and whose successor document is now being negotiated.
A symbolic name
Bakhtiari of the Tasnim news agency said Iran had already handed over domestically-made Shahab missiles to its armed forces in 2003, which have a range of 1,100 kilometers. According to Bakhtiari, the Revolutionary Guards then set themselves the goal of building a rocket that could fly 2,000 kilometers and thus hit any target on “the enemy’s” — that is, Israel’s — soil. In addition to the range, the accuracy is an important factor.
Most recently, the Iranian public was presented with the “Kheibar-Shekan” missile with a range of 1,450 kilometers. Its targeting accuracy and payload capacity are unknown – Bakhtiari assumes a maximum payload of 500 kilograms based on the size. The “Kheibar-Shekan” rocket is named after a Jewish province in modern-day Saudi Arabia at the time of the Prophet Mohammed – a name with great symbolism: in the historical area of Chaibar there were several Jewish fortresses, Shekan stands for “break”.
Graduated before Nowruz?
The official at the Israeli foreign ministry is alarmed: Because Iran has now produced more than 30 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium, the regime in Tehran is able to produce enough 90 percent enriched uranium within a very short time, he says – 27 kilograms enough for a nuclear warhead that poses an existential threat to Israel. The Israeli foreign ministry official concludes that Iran is already very close to its goal.
On March 21, Iran celebrates Nowruz, the Persian New Year. After that, the country stands still for at least a week. If no agreement is signed by then, the negotiations could be significantly delayed and possibly even fail completely. The rocket program and the production of highly enriched uranium should continue unabated.