06 November 2006
U.S. Admiral Condemns Iranian Missile Tests
Iran carries out military exercises while defying U.N. over nuclear program
Washington – Iran’s ongoing military exercises in the Gulf are a “message of intimidation and fear,” according to the commander of U.S. naval forces in the region, Vice Admiral Patrick Walsh.
“[T]his is an exercise really meant to intimidate and provoke fear in those who live here,” Walsh said in a November 3 interview with Fox News shortly after Iran tested three new naval missiles with a range of 170 kilometers, effectively extending the reach of its anti-ship missiles over the entire Gulf.
Walsh expressed particular concern over the threat the missiles pose to vessels traveling through the Sea of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz, a 33-kilometer wide stretch of ocean between Iran and Oman through which 20 percent of the world’s oil supply passes each day.
Iran tested three new types of sea-to-sea and land-to-sea missiles November 3, the Noor, the Kausar and the Nasr, as part of a 10-day military exercise dubbed “The Greatest Prophet.” The previous day, Iran opened its exercises with tests of short and medium-range Shahab-2 and Shahab-3 missiles. According to Iranian media outlets, the Shahab missiles are outfitted with cluster warheads and can deliver their payloads up to 2,000 kilometers away, putting the entire Middle East and parts of Central and South Asia within Tehran’s military reach.
“The message that we're sending is that we're standing firm with our friends in the region,” Walsh said.
Iran’s exercises come less than a week after the United States led a 25-nation joint naval exercise in the Gulf simulating the interdiction of an illicit nuclear weapons shipment. (See related story.)
Walsh dismissed any comparison between the two operations, saying the U.S.-led exercises were part of a multinational law enforcement program aimed at preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
“[During] that exercise, not one shot was fired. And the simulation here was of … weapons of mass destruction in a cardboard box,” he said.
Iran’s military exercises come at a time when Tehran is locked in conflict with the international community over its nuclear program. The U.N. Security Council is considering sanctions against Iran in light of its refusal to halt its uranium enrichment program. Tehran insists that the enrichment is aimed at developing peaceful civil nuclear power, but many in the international community are concerned that the technology could easily be used to produce nuclear weapons. (See related article.)
In 2005, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) discovered documents in Iran’s possession that detailed methods for casting enriched uranium metal into hemispheres suitable only for the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
U.S. officials dismiss the notion that Iran is interested solely in a nuclear power industry. “If that's what they want, they've been offered a way to get civil nuclear power,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview November 4. As part of a broad package of incentives aimed at convincing Tehran to abandon its uranium enrichment program, the United States, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom offered Iran help in developing a civil nuclear power industry.
“What the world is not prepared to see them have is the access to the technology of enrichment and reprocessing that leads to the ability to build a nuclear weapon,” she said. “So that opportunity was there. That opportunity is still there. But we're going to have a Security Council resolution that does recognize the fact that Iran has not yet given in to the will of the international community.”
Iran’s military exercises are scheduled to end November 11.
For additional information, see Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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