Ali Shamkhani: Iran Will Not Increase the Range of Its Missiles

The Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council stated that the Islamic Republic has "no scientific or executive constraints" on increasing the range of its missiles, but "based solely on its defensive doctrine, it has no intention to enhance the range" of its missiles. One of the reasons for the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA was the Islamic Republic's missile activities, and European officials, including French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, have warned Iran that if negotiations over its ballistic missile program yield no results, Paris is prepared to impose new sanctions on Tehran. Iranian officials have rejected any negotiations regarding their missile program, asserting that Tehran's missiles are not capable of carrying nuclear weapons and therefore do not violate UN Security Council Resolution 2231. This resolution, issued after the 2015 nuclear agreement, called on Iran to refrain from developing ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Now, Ali Shamkhani, despite recent European requests for Iran to halt its missile program, stated that "Iran has no scientific or executive constraints for increasing the range of its military missiles." He added at a national space technology conference at the University of Science and Technology that Tehran "only based on its defensive doctrine, alongside continuous efforts to enhance precision, has no intention to enhance the range of its missiles." Shamkhani described the "media hype" from Western and Israeli sources linking Iran's space program to missile capabilities as "misleading the public opinion." He stated, "There is no greater scandal for the Zionist regime, which claims to have superior intelligence, than realizing that its cabinet ministers have become intelligence sources and that hundreds of kilometers of tunnels have been dug beneath it, with precision missiles in the hands of... resistance fighters in Gaza and Lebanon ready to respond to its possible folly with a hell of fire." His remarks referred to the arrest of Gonen Segev, Israel's former energy minister, who has been accused of espionage for Iran. High-ranking military officials, including military commanders, have repeatedly threatened Israel with "being wiped off the map," and verbal tensions between the two countries have escalated with Israeli attacks on Iranian bases in Syria. Following a recent warning from Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah Lebanon, to Benjamin Netanyahu about the consequences of a new war in the region, the deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also threatened that a new war in the region would "lead to the annihilation of Israel." In response to Israeli threats to target Iranian positions in Syria, Hossein Salami stated, "Our strategy is to wipe Israel off the political map of the world, and it seems that with the evils Israel is committing, it is getting closer to this reality." The Twitter account "Israel in Persian" also reacted to Salami's remarks, stating: "Mr. Salami, Nazi Germany also tried, but the fate of oppressive regimes is the same."