Iran tests new surface-to-surface missile with a 900-mile range called Martyr Qassem Soleimani after the Quds Force leader killed in a US airstrike
Reuters and Associated Press – Aug 20, 2020
New Iranian cruise missile, the Abu Mahdi. Click to enlarge
Iran displayed a surface-to-surface ballistic missile on Thursday with a range of 870 miles and a new cruise missile, ignoring U.S. demands that Tehran halt its missile programme.
‘The surface-to-surface missile, called martyr Qassem Soleimani, has a range of 1,400 km and the cruise missile, called martyr Abu Mahdi, has a range of over 1,000 km,’ Defence Minister Amir Hatami said in a televised speech.
Pictures of the missiles were shown on state TV, which it said was ‘the newest Iranian cruise missile that will further strengthen Iran’s deterrence power’.
A burning vehicle at Baghdad International Airport shotly after the US drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani. Click to enlarge
Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed in January in a U.S. strike on their convoy in Baghdad airport.
‘Missiles and particularly cruise missiles are very important for us … the fact that we have increased the range from 300 to 1,000 in less than two years is a great achievement,’ said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
‘Our military might and missile programmes are defensive.’
The announcement comes as Washington is pushing to extend a U.N.-imposed arms embargo against Iran, which is due to expire in October under Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday Trump has directed him to trigger ‘snapback’ – a return of all U.S. sanctions on Iran – at the U.N. Security Council in New York on Thursday, after the council rejected Washington’s bid to extend Tehran’s arms embargo.
The Trump administration is set to demand the restoration of all international sanctions on Iran in a move that will further isolate the U.S. at the United Nations, test the credibility of the U.N. Security Council and possibly deal a fatal blow to one of former President Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy achievements.