TEHRAN, June 28 (Xinhua) — Iran successfully testfired 14 short-range, medium-range and long-range missiles on Tuesday, local English language satellite Press TV reported.
The missiles fired included Zelzal, Shahab-1, Shahab-2 and Shahab-3 on the second day of the Great Prophet-6 military drills, the report said.
Five Shahab missiles, including four medium-range and one long- range, as well as nine Zelzal missiles were launched near the central city of Qom.
The Islamic Republic began the Great Prophet-6 drills on Monday, and on the first day of the exercises, Iran unveiled underground missile silos and fired Fateh-110 missile, said the report.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday that the more powerful an independent country is to defend itself, the more helpful it would be for the security, peace and stability of the region.
In his weekly press briefing, Mehmanparast said that if the regional countries were powerful enough to defend themselves, the Zionist regime of Israel would never dare to attack and occupy their territory.
Now that the West is concerned about Iran’s power to defend itself, it means that they cannot pursue their interests easily in the region, said the spokesman.
Aerospace commander of Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said Tuesday that Iran’s missiles have the range of 2,000 km and can reach U.S. bases in the region and also Israel, said the semi-official Mehr news agency.
Iran does not need to increase the range of its missiles since Israel is just 1,200 km away from Iran and the U.S. bases are even nearer, some 120 to 700 km away from Iran, and with the existing missiles Iran can hit the targets from the Iranian central cities of Semnan and Damghan, Hajizadeh was quoted as saying.
He dismissed the threats by the Europeans and said that Iran has designed and developed its missiles for U.S. and Israel targets, said the report.
