Iran can expand range of ballistic missiles

GENEVA — Iran has the ability to build ballistic missiles with a broader range, a senior commander of the elite Revolutionary Guard said on Monday, according to the semi-official Fars News agency.

Iran’s missiles currently cover a range of 2000 kilometres  and many “enemy bases” are within 800 kilometres of the Islamic Republic, Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards’ airspace division, was cited as saying. 

US President Donald Trump pulled out of an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme in May and reimposed sanctions on Tehran. He said the deal was flawed because it did not include curbs on Iran’s development of ballistic missiles or its support for proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq.

“We have the ability to build missiles with a broader range,” Hajizadeh said, according to Fars News. He added, “We don’t have limitations from a technical perspective or by conventions with regard to missile range.”

The Iranian government has ruled out negotiations with Washington over its military capabilities, particularly its missile programme run by the guard.

Last month, Hajizadeh said that US bases in Afghanistan, the UAE and Qatar, and US aircraft carriers in the Gulf were within range of Iranian missiles.

In October, the Revolutionary Guard fired missiles at Daesh militants in Syria after the Islamist group took responsibility for an attack at a military parade in Iran that killed 25 people, nearly half of them members of the guards.