Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said on Saturday it has lifted a self-imposed limit of 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) on the range of its ballistic missiles, suggesting Tehran may seek weapons able to reach more distant targets.
Guard spokesman Gen. Hossein Mohebbi made the announcement at a news conference in Tehran, telling reporters: “That restriction has been lifted for us.”
Mohebbi did not say whether Iran already has missiles capable of flying beyond the limit, saying only that Iran would “demonstrate these capabilities in practice” rather than make statements. Iran is not known to have missiles able to go beyond 2,000 kilometres, a range that already covers parts of Greece and the Balkans, the entire Arabian Peninsula, the Levant and most of Egypt.
The limit was first acknowledged in 2017 by then-Guard commander Mohammad Ali Jafari, who said it followed the policy of the supreme leader at the time, Ali Khamenei.
The announcement comes days after Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei directed the armed forces to respond to “any kind and level of threat” from the United States or Israel without geographic limits. Iranian officials have since said that could include US bases in Europe.
It also comes a day after the United States carried out limited strikes on an Iranian air-defence system on Qeshm Island, amid growing fears of renewed all-out war in the region.
US officials have said technology from Iran’s space programme could be repurposed to build intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Source: Associated Press, via Kurdistan24: https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/951423
