Iran's Khamenei inaugurates new ballistic missile capable of striking Israel

Al Bawaba, the Middle East Gateway ^ | July 20 2003

[knighthawk]

Iran's supreme leader on Sunday inaugurated a new ballistic missile that brings Israel within range of the Islamic republic, praising the event as a key moment in the defense of the Palestinian cause.

"Today our people and our armed forces are ready to defend their goals anywhere," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a ceremony for the elite Revolutionary Guards carried on state television.

"This divine force has answered all threats, and we are witnessing today that this divine force is now doing the same for the Lebanese and the Palestinian people," he added in the ceremony to bring the Shihab-3 missile into service.

Television pictures showed Khamenei flanked by officers and other clerics, at least 1,000 troops in ceremonial dress, and three of the Shihab-3 rockets on what seemed to be mobile launchers.

The report said the Revolutionary Guards, who have their own air force, were also given some new but unidentified attack and transport helicopters as well as an undisclosed number of Russian-built Sukhoi-25 jets, according to AFP.

Yahya Rahim-Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guards, said in his speech during the ceremony in Tehran that his force was now "ready to defend Iran against any threat".

[knighthawk]

Ping

[Semper Paratus]

The IDF was restrained against Iraq.
I don't forsee the IDF sitting back for long on this one.

[TigerLikesRooster]

he added in the ceremony to bring the Shihab-3 missile into service.

Don't forget to thank Kimg Jong-il, the Chia Fruit in Pyongyang. You wouldn't have gone anywhere without his help.

[dr_who_2]

Israel needs to show some spunk and do to Iran what they did to Iraq. It would be a mistake to wait for America to do anything about it now.

[gaspar]

Rest assured, should an Iranian missile ever strike Israel Iran would be propelled back to the stone age. What scares the Hell out of Arab nations from Morocco to Kuwait is that some wacko will use a nuclear weapon on Tel Aviv. Should that happen, you can write finis to the cosmopolitain centers of the Arab World, and certainly Tehran, Isfahan and Qom.

[dr_who_2]

Granted, but this does upset the balance of things. What if Syria manages to build up its conventional forces and enters into a pact with Iran?

[dr_who_2]

Arab nations like Morocco and Kuwait probably have the least influence to begin with.

[Jeff Head]

Even though we knew it was coming, this is not a good development and will serve to destablize the entire region. Israel may have to act in the near future.

What if Syria manages to build up its conventional forces and enters into a pact with Iran?

In my series of novels, among many, many other things...that is exactly what happens...about the same time the N Koreans invade the south and the Chines lure us (with promises of trying to ease tensions) into a collosal ambush in the Far East. Which is, it turns out, exactly what they were all planning all along behind the scenes.

[dr_who_2]

Have you written any novels about airliners crashing into tall buildings?

[Monty22]

Oh, if that happens the Samson option goes into effect and the entire islamic/arab world will be reduced to complete rubble with Israel's some 200-400 nuclear weapons.

[Jeff Head]

Nope...more along the lines of successful supercavitating weapons development and massive conventional ballistic missile launches from converted container ships, among other things. The novels were never meant to be limited to terror attacks, they are more along the lines of how "Unrestricted Warfare" could play out against us from major enemy nation-states.

Started writing in April of 2001 and had to make an understandably major revision after 9-11, after the shock and anguish wore off and I could write again. 1st novel was self-published in Nov. 2001.

[Valin]

What Hamas, hezbolah..etc have to really understand(and I mean by this put it first on there list when they are talking about attacking Israel) is The Israelis have Nukes! And if they even get a hint that they might lose...to quote a post WWII Jewish saying, "NEVER AGAIN!" And they WILL take everyone else in the area down with them. Make no mistake about that Cario, Mecca, Damascus, Amman, and any place else you can mention WILL glow in the dark.