Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami gave an assurance that all of the country’s missiles are equipped only with conventional warheads.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a weekly cabinet session on Wednesday, General Hatami emphasized that all of the Iranian missiles, which he described as a key component of the Islamic Republic’s defense power, are manufactured only with conventional warheads.
He said the powerful missiles are also very precise, adding that the US has experienced the precision of the Iranian missiles very well after the recent strike targeting the Ain al-Assad airbase in Iraq.
The minister also categorically rejected the US claim that Iran is honing its ballistic missile skills through the launch of satellites, stressing that launching satellites has nothing to do with the country’s missile program.
“What has been banned in the area of missiles is working on missiles with the capability to carry nuclear warheads, while such a thing does not exist in the Islamic Republic,” Hatami underscored.
The minister explained that Iran’s recent launch of Zafar satellite with the homegrown satellite carrier Simorgh was completely irrelevant to the country’s missile program. “We might use a satellite for defense purposes, but the subject of satellite carriers is totally non-defensive, and it is the Iranian nation’s inalienable and definite right (to develop them).”
The defense minister also emphasized that the Simorgh satellite carrier is part of a research program, saying the research in this field will go on until Iran achieves the desired results.
Iran on Sunday launched Zafar satellite with the Simorgh satellite carrier from the Imam Khomeini National Space Center.
Although the homegrown satellite could not finish the orbit insertion phase, the bulk of the research targets were achieved after the launch.
Minister of Information and Communications Technology Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi has announced that the Zafar-II satellite will be launched in the Iranian month of Khordad (May/June 2020).
