Iran faces no restrictions for increasing range of missiles: Shamkhani

Iran’s top security official says the country faces no scientific restrictions for increasing the range of its missiles, but that it currently has no plans to do so and is only focused on improving the accuracy of its missile technology.

Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani made the remarks in an address to a national summit on space technology at the Iran University of Science and Technology, in Tehran on Tuesday.

He said that Western and Israeli media have been leading a propaganda campaign against Iran by linking the country’s space program to its missile power.

“Iran has no scientific and operational restrictions for increasing the range of its military missiles, and it is only continuously working on boosting the precision [of the missiles] based on its defense doctrine, and has no intention to increase their range,” he added.

Earlier this month, Iran successfully launched a domestically-built satellite into space with an aim to collect environmental information to boost the country’s forecasting system, although technical problems prevented the spacecraft from reaching orbit.

Video: Iran launches satellite into space

Iran sends a domestically-built satellite into space on a scientific mission, but the satellite is not placed in orbit due to technical glitches in the final stage.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the satellite launch was actually part of Tehran’s attempts to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also claimed that Iran was using the spacecraft launch as a cover for testing technology that is necessary to lob a warhead at the US and other countries.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Shamkhani said that Israel’s anti-Iran propaganda campaign was actually “meant to divert the public opinion from the moral and economic corruption among the regime’s rulers.”

“Nothing is more scandalous for the Zionist regime, which claims to be the superior intelligence power, than realizing…that its cabinet ministers have turned into intelligence sources [for other governments]; that hundreds of kilometers of tunnels have been dug beneath its feet; and that precision-guided missiles are now in the powerful hands of resistance fighters in Gaza and Lebanon,” he noted.

Iran’s missiles ‘non-negotiable’

Separately on Tuesday, Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami emphasized that Iran’s missile power will not be negotiated.

“Today, the enemy persistently calls for the elimination of Iran’s missile capability, a lasting [element of] power, but we have repeatedly said that Iran’s missile power is not subject to negotiation,” he said at a meeting of the administrative council of the central Yazd Province.

Last week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian threatened to impose new sanctions on Iran over its missile program.

Iran strongly censured the threat and vowed to reconsider its relations with European countries in case such bans are imposed.

“Iran’s military capabilities are part of the country’s legitimate defense power and a guarantor of the Islamic Republic’s national security, which is based on the doctrine of deterrence,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said.