Iran says it has successfully tested three new missiles

Nov 3, 2006, 13:55 GMT

Tehran - The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced Friday it has successfully tested three new missiles during its latest round of military exercises, state television IRIB reported.

'The Revolutionary Guard Corps test fired three new types of land- to-sea and sea-to-sea missiles on its second day of military exercises,' the report said, adding that 'the three new missiles, named Noor, Nasr and Kowsar, were built for naval warfare and have a range of about 105 miles.'

The IRIB report showed footage of the IRGC firing the missiles from mobile launching pads on the shore, and from warships.

'We could improve the range of our missiles from 120 kilometres to 170 kilometres so that the entire Gulf, from the Straits of Hormuz and most of the Sea of Oman, comes within our range,' the IRGC's deputy naval chief General Ali Fadavi was quoted as saying.

The IRGC's 10-day manoeuvres code-named 'Grand Prophet 2' began Thursday throughout the country and offshore in the Gulf and Sea of Oman with the testing of various missiles, including the Shahab-2 which can carry cluster warheads, as well as the more powerful Shahab-3 missile.

The medium-range Shahab-3 missile reportedly has a range of between 1,300 and 2,000 kilometres and has caused grave concern in Israel. However, Tehran has assured the international community that the missiles are for defensive purposes only.

The commander of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, said on Wednesday that the aim of the manoeuvres was to show Iran's determination to defend itself against all threats.

'These manoeuvres are neither a threat to the region nor our neighbours who are considered as our friends,' he said during a press conference in Tehran. In Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the exercises show that Iran continued to be 'a source of potential instability.'

'This sort of seeming sabre-rattling on the part of Iran, I think, just underscores the fact that Iran is at this point in time, with this regime, not a source of stability in the region,' he said.

Iran held its last military exercises in August and proclaimed to have successfully tested its first home-made fighter plane Saeqeh (Lightning), similar to the US F-18 fighter but redesigned and remodelled by Iranian experts.