Iran to upgrade medium-range missiles - official

Reuters ^ | December 15,2003 | Reuters

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Iran will upgrade its medium-range Shahab-3 missiles that analysts say can hit Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf rather than develop a new, longer range weapon, a senior official was quoted as saying on Monday.

Acting Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan denied reports Iran intended to build a new missile, Shahab-4, with a 2000-kilometre range, but said the Shahab-3 would be improved.

"We will be optimising our Shahab-3 instead," he was quoted as saying in the hardline Siyasat-e Rouz newspaper.

Shahab is Persian for shooting star.

It was not immediately clear whether "optimising" meant improving the weapon's accuracy, range or its firepower. Defence Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.

Tehran test-fired the Shahab-3 in June. It is thought capable of carrying a warhead of more than a tonne about 1,300 kilometres.

Analysts viewed June's test as sabre-rattling while international pressure mounted on Iran to prove claims that its nuclear programme was peaceful.

The missile was later deployed by the country's elite Revolutionary Guards.

Six Shahab-3 missiles were paraded in Tehran in September carrying banners which read: "We will wipe Israel from the map".

According to the International Crisis Group, an independent organisation funded by numerous governmental and private donors, Iran is developing a new rocket with a 2000-km range and a payload of up to 1.4 tonnes - the so-called Shahab-4.

Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance in Iran spread word of this new missile in 2002.

In response to a question about this aspect of Iran's ballistic ambitions, Dehghan replied: "Such allegations are part of the U.S. and Israeli psychological war against the Islamic Republic".