After test failure, US warns Iran over defensive missiles

Amid failure of the US long-range ballistic missile test over the Pacific Ocean, the Pentagon warns Iran continue to pursue long-range ballistic missiles.

The Pentagon released a report that described the intermediate and shorter-range missiles of Iran and North Korea as ” threats” to US forces, allies and partners.

On Sunday, the US military fired a ballistic missile at a US Army site at the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Island and minutes later launched a ground-based interceptor missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in an attempt to shoot down the ballistic missile.

However, the sea-based X-band radar “did not perform as expected” in the test, the MDA said in a statement.

The US Air Force says both missiles performed well during the launch and the flight phases but the system’s sea-based radar fell short of expectations.

Iran has repeatedly announced that its missiles are defensive and aimed at increasing the country’s deterrence capability with regard to mounting war threats mainly by the US and Israel over its nuclear program.

The test comes as the US has reportedly begun beefing up its military presence and war paraphernalia thousands of miles away from the American soil near the Iranian coast in addition to imposing new sanctions on the Tehran government.

Unnamed US military officials said that Washington has taken silent steps to increase the capability of land-based Patriot missiles on the territory of some Arab states in the Persian Gulf region.

After a recent wave of developments in the Middle East that strongly imply preparations for a possible new military conflict in the region, Israel has allegedly increased the scope of its undercover operations in the region, particularly against Lebanon, Iran, Syria and the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas.

For years Israeli politicians have masterminded a wave of undercover operations and terror plots in numerous countries, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Switzerland, and the US.

In their most recent remarks Israeli officials have threatened Lebanon and Iran with ‘inevitable confrontation’ and ‘heavy measures.’

Much of Israel’s espionage operations have lately been focused on the Tehran government, largely because of Iran’s uranium enrichment activities, which Tel Aviv has been seeking to portray as a serious threat.

Tel Aviv, which is reported to have an arsenal of 200 nuclear warheads itself, accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons and routinely threatens to reduce the country’s enrichment sites to rubble.

This is while Iran, unlike Israel, is a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has opened its enrichment facilities to UN inspection.