thr 037
iran-rearmament
war lessons key to iran developing defense systems
london, sept. 29, irna-- the main motive behind iran's drive to
procure surface-to-surface missiles and to develop its missile systems
is the lessons of the 1980-88 iraq-iran war, anoushiravan ehteshami,
director of middle eastern and islamic studies at durham university,
said here tuesday.
speaking on the second day of a conference on ballistic missile
proliferation 1999, he said that iran learned from the experience
of one of the longest military campaigns of this century to develop
its defence system, to sharpen its diplomatic skills, to go after
military procurement and to rely on its indigenous missile technology.
the israeli-turkish alliance of mid 1980s has created concerns for
iran which iran considers as a threat against the region, he added.
ehteshami further told the conference, sponsored by the jane's
defence weekly, that iran has learned from the democratic people's
republic of korea that ''if you have something that they (west)
do not want you to have, then you have a bargaining chip.''
in his assessment of iran's military programs, he said that iran
is aspiring to be a main player in international politics.
giving a detailed account of iraqi bombardment of the iranian
cities and installations, he said that iraq deployed missiles
almost from the beginning of the war.
in the initial stage, baghdad deployed frog-7s. before
exhausting its inventory of frog-7s in mid 1982, iraq fired around 70
missiles at iranian civilian and military targets. in 1981 alone iraq
fired 54 missiles at iranian targets, he said adding that till this
stage iran had not developed an appropriate response.
however, iraq's introduction of scud missiles changed the
situation. in 1983 iraq fired 37 scuds against iran and another 82
in 1985, hitting tehran and industrial targets.
by starting the `war of cities', iraq aimed to create a rift
between the leadership and the people, he said, adding that iran's
response to this was incredible in disappointing baghdad.
in 1988 iraq had deployed both scuds as well as home-grown
(soviet-based) al-hussein surface-to-surface missiles at iranian
cities.
eheteshami said that in the face of such attacks iran had to
create its own surface-to-surface retaliatory force and thus extended
its existing military-industrial base, developed close military links
with a number of countries and also acquired whatever it could from
the open market.
''in the missile war iran was primarily motivated by the desire to
protect its population centers and to deter iraq from attacking
them,'' he said adding that to do this it needed a large supply of
surface-to-surface missiles of different ranges and payloads.
he pointed out that the main strategic lesson learned from the
continuos iraqi missile attacks was that iran had to develop its
indigenous missile technology base and develop a credible civil
defence system.
till now there is no peace treaty between iran and iraq and in
the absence of such a treaty iran is concerned of the future, he
said. he also pointed out that presence of the u.s. military forces
in the persian gulf is a challenge to iran, if not a threat.
jh/rr
end
::irna 29/09/99 15:09
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