Tehran: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards tested ballistic missiles against targets in the Indian Ocean as they wrapped up a two-day exercise.
According to the Sepah News website, missiles of “different classes” hit enemy warplanes and destroyed them at a distance of 1,800 km (1,125 miles).
The guards said the missiles were fired from central Iran at targets in the Indian Ocean.
A video released by state television shows two missiles being launched and their targets being hit at sea.
On the second day of the exercise, he was accompanied by Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Maj. Gen. Mohammad Baghiri, Chief of Guards Maj. Gen. Hussein Salami and Aerospace Commander Brigadier General Amryali Hajiza.
“One of our major goals in security policies and strategies is to target enemy aircraft, including aircraft carriers and fighter jets, using long-range ballistic missiles.”
Bagheri said the launch showed that Iran was ready to respond to any “sick will” of its enemies, and warned that in such cases “it would be destroyed by our missiles”.
“We have no intention of attacking,” he said, adding that the exercise showed Iran’s readiness to defend itself “with all its might” against any aggressor.
Named the Great Prophet 15, the exercise also included a drone strike on the missile defense system, followed by the launch of a “new generation” surface-to-surface ballistic missile barrage.
The war games have come at a time of growing tensions with the United States in the last days of President Donald Trump’s administration.
This was Iran’s third military exercise in less than two weeks after a naval exercise in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday and Thursday, and an army drone drill on January 5-6.
The exercises began two days after the anniversary of the assassination of Qasim Soleimani, the commander of the Guards, who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in January last year.
European powers, meanwhile, on Saturday expressed deep concern over Iran’s plans to enrich uranium, warning that Tehran does not have “credible civilian use” for the element.
“The production of uranium metal has potentially serious military implications,” the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany said in a joint statement.
Iran signed a 15-year ban on “making or obtaining plutonium or uranium metals or their alloys” under the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan (JCPOA) with world powers in 2015.
“We urge Iran to suspend this activity, and to abide by the JCPOA’s commitments without delay if it is serious about safeguarding this agreement,” the ministers said.
His call came after Iran told the UN nuclear watchdog on Wednesday that it was pursuing uranium enrichment research, saying it was aimed at conducting research in Tehran. To provide modern fuel to the reactor.
Iran and the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany have reached a consensus on a 2015 deal to thwart Tehran’s nuclear ambitions since President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018 and Strict restrictions were imposed.
.
