Iranian Commander Names Israel as Iran’s Long-Range Target. TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian commander said the distance between Iran and Israel is the maximum range that Tehran wants for its missiles, saying that Iran does not need missiles with a longer range.
- A high-ranking commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps is declaring that Israel is the key “target” of Iran’s missile program, noting that Tehran can ensure that “nothing will be left of Israel.” The statement, designed to reassure Western countries that Iran merely seeks the eradicatian of the Jewish State and will not target American and European interests, is unlikely to reassure Western countries that have pushed the Iranians to abandon suspected weaponization dimensions of their atomic program. It also aligns poorly with intelligence analysis to the effect that Iran’s intercontinental ballistic missile program has achieved ranges that reach into Eastern Europe. Meanwhile the Washington Post conveys statements by U.S. and European diplomats indicating that ” Iran has shown no hint that it plans to accept” U.S. offers to hold bilateral nuclear talks.
 |
||
“We don’t need missiles with over 2000km but we have the technology to build them,” Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh told reporters today.
“Israel is our longest-range target,” the commander underscored.
The remarks by Hajizadeh came a few days after an internal US report recently submitted to US Congress claimed that Iran is apparently no longer on its way to acquiring intercontinental ballistic missiles by 2015.
The report casts doubt on a view long held by US intelligence agencies that Iran could be able to test-fly an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, by 2015 if it receives “sufficient foreign assistance.”
“It is increasingly uncertain whether Iran will be able to achieve an ICBM capability by 2015,” said the report compiled by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, which works exclusively for lawmakers.
That is while Iranian officials have always stressed that the country’s military and arms programs serve defensive purposes.
Israeli officials have recently intensified their war rhetoric against Iran. In response, Iranian officials have warned that in case Zionists attack Iran, nothing will be left of Israel and its worldwide interests.
- Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has responded to a European Union statement blaming Jerusalem for obstructing peace by noting that the condemnation seems abstruse when lined up alongside recent Palestinian statements calling for Israel’s eradication and recent Palestinian diplomacy shattering the peace process. The MFA statement specifically called attention to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s November 29 speech in front of the U.N., described at the time by Israeli officials as “poisonous” and “hate-driven,” and to an openly genocidal speech over the weekend by Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal. The European condemnation comes as Abbas’s Fatah faction has permitted Hamas to hold a rally in the West Bank, raising speculation that the rivals are seeking to overcome tensions which have simmered since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah in a violent 2007 coup.
- Google has opened a start-up incubator, the Internet giant’s second, in Tel Aviv. The campus, which is already live on the web, will offer “a warm and vibrant nest for local – and visiting – Internet startups and other players in the ecosystem, offering co-working office and event spaces and meeting areas.” Dubbed the world’s “Start-Up Nation,” Israel “has emerged as a model of entrepreneurialism that countries at all stages of development have tried to replicate.” Per capita the country has more high-tech start-ups and a larger venture capital industry any other country in the world.
