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US: Iran should be "embarrassed" over missile photo flap
Jul 11, 2008, 21:22 GMT
Washington - Iran should be 'supremely embarassed' over reports that a photograph of the Islamic nation's missile tests this week had been doctored, the United States said on Friday.
'I imagine that Iranian officials are supremely embarrassed by the fact that they have been caught red-handed, doctoring these photos to try to play up or deceive the rest of the world in terms of their missile launching capabilities,' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
French news agency Agence France Presse on Thursday said a photo it had received of Wednesday's missile tests had likely been altered by Iran, according to defence and photography experts it consulted.
The photograph, provided by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' own news agency, shows four missiles launching when in fact there may only have been three.
Despite the photo alteration, McCormack said there was little dispute that Iran had long-range missiles capable of striking throughout the Middle East, including Israel.
A senior Iranian Ayatollah said Friday that the missile tests in Iran had not been meant as a threat to any country, nor were they fake.
'There have been several comments about our missiles' tests, especially by the United States, and all of them are wrong,' Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani said at a Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran.
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