London
10 July 2008
Iran has fired another round of long-range missiles, the second suchtest in the past two days. The latest test firing came just hoursafter a warning from the United States about such missile launches. VOA's Sonja Pace has details from London.
Iran tested yet moremissiles overnight. Iranian state television showed pictures ofmissiles streaking through the night sky. Iranian media said the testlaunch included medium and long-range missiles and torpedoes. Reportssaid the weapons were fired from ships in the Persian Gulf and from onthe ground.
This was the second such test within two days. OnWednesday Iran reported firing nine test missiles, including thelong-range Shahab-3, which it says has a range of 2,000 kilometers andcould reach Israel and other U.S. allies in the Middle East and SouthAsia.
Speaking during a visit to Tbilisi, Georgia U.S. Secretaryof State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran that the United States willdefend itself and its allies.
"We will defend Americaninterests and we will defend the interests of our allies," she said. "In the Gulf area, the United States has enhanced its securitycapacity, its security presence and we are working closely with all ofour allies to make certain that they are capable of defendingthemselves and we take very, very strongly our obligation to help ourallies defend themselves and no one should be confused about that."
Thecommander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards says the missile tests showTehran's strength against its "enemies." Iran has repeatedly said itis prepared to guard against or retaliate harshly to attacks it saysIsrael and the United States are planning against Iranian nuclearfacilities.
Israel and the United States say no specific plansare in the works, although both countries say all options remain on thetable to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran'smissile tests come after Israel held military exercises last month thatwere widely seen as a practice run for a future attack on Iran'snuclear facilities.
Defense analyst Mark Fitzpatrick of London'sInternational Institute for Strategic Studies tells VOA the missiletests are saber rattling.
"Israel had conducted a drill thatobviously was to perfect a bombing campaign against Iran's nuclearestablishment and made that public," he noted. "Iran wants to makesomething public in return to demonstrate to the outside world, butjust as importantly to its own people that it has capabilities."
Fitzpatricksays Iran's missiles are not as accurate or powerful as Tehran wouldlike the world to believe. He also says pictures of Wednesday'smissile launch had been manipulated to hide the fact that one of themissiles did not fire properly.
Still, Fitzpatrick says theinternational community should be concerned about if and when Iran doesachieve nuclear weapons capability to use on those missiles.