Ankara, Reuters, 25 May 2017 - Iran has built a third underground ballistic missile
production factory and will keep developing its missile programme, the
semi-official Fars news agency quoted a senior commander of the elite
Revolutionary Guard as saying.
The
development is likely to fuel tensions with the United States in a week when
President Donald Trump, on his first foreign trip, has called Iran a sponsor of
militant groups and a threat to countries across the Middle East.
“Iran’s
third underground factory has been built by the Guards in recent years ... We
will continue to further develop our missile capabilities forcefully,” Fars
quoted Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the Guard’s airspace division, as saying.
Since
taking office in January, Trump has imposed new sanctions on Iran in response
to its recent missile launches, putting Tehran “on notice”.
Iran has
reacted defiantly. President Hassan Rouhani said
on Monday: “Iran does not need the permission of the United States to conduct
missile tests”.
Iran’s
Sunni Muslim Gulf neighbours and its arch-enemy Israel have expressed concerns
over Tehran’s ballistic missile programme, seeing it as a threat to regional
security.
In 2015,
Iranian state TV aired footage of underground tunnels with ready-to-fire
missiles on the back of trucks, saying the facility was one of hundreds of
underground missile bases around the country.
“It is
natural that our enemies America and the Zionist regime (Israel) are angry with
our missile programme because they want Iran to be in a weak position,”
Hajizadeh said.
Most
nuclear-related sanctions on Iran were lifted last year after Tehran fulfilled
commitments under a 2015 deal with major powers to scale back its nuclear
programme - an agreement that Trump has frequently criticised as being too soft
on Tehran. But Iran remains subject to a UN arms embargo and other
restrictions.
Two
months after implementation of the deal, the Guards test-fired two ballistic
missiles that it said were designed to be able to hit Israel.
Iran says
its missile programe is not in defiance with a UN resolution that calls on it
to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons
for up to eight years.
“Along
with improving our defence capabilities, we will continue our missile tests and
missile production. The next missile to be produced is a surface-to-surface
missile,” said Hajizadeh, without elaborating.
In
retaliation for the new US sanctions over its ballistic missile programme, Iran
this month added nine American individuals and companies to its own list of 15
US companies for alleged human rights violations and cooperation with Israel.
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