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December 4, 2014 |
Inquiry & Analysis Series Report No.1135
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Iranian IRGC Missile
Unit Commanders: We've Developed 2,000-km Range Missiles And Equipped
Hizbullah With 300-km Range Missiles; Fars News Agency: Israel's
Illusions About Its Natural Gas Fields Will Be Buried In The
Mediterranean
By: U. Kafash, Y. Mansharof, and A. Savyon*
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Introduction
Two weeks before November 24, 2014, the end date of the Joint
Plan of Action between Iran and the P5+1, websites close to Iran's
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) began reporting about the
capabilities of the IRGC missile unit, and in particular about this
unit's capability to strike and destroy Israel. At the same time, there
has been a marked increase in threats by IRGC officials on behalf of
Hizbullah about the latter's readiness to strike any point in Israel. Furthermore, the IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency is touting the capability
of Hizbullah's Iranian missiles to damage Israel's natural gas fields
in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as Israeli naval vessels.
On November 24, IRGC commander Ali Jafari said at a conference at
Shahid Modares University: "Today, the entire area of the occupied
territories [Israel] is within range of the missiles of the resistance –
meaning the fall of the Zionist regime. Of course, the matter does not
end here, and certainly the final liberation [of Palestine] will come
about."[1]
Also in November, the Iranian news agency Fars published statements
by IRGC Aerospace Force and missile unit commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh
and his deputy Majid Mousavi, both of whom claimed that the missile unit
had been established in order to attack Israel. They said that
Hizbullah is in possession of Iranian missiles with a range of 300 km,
covering Israeli territory as far south as Dimona. Hajizadeh added that
the IRGC and Hizbullah were a single apparatus.
Hajizadeh explained in detail the history of the establishment of the missile unit, which originally copied Libyan missile systems and was based on knowhow provided by North Korea, and
that training for it had been carried out in Syria. He noted that it
was Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who had demanded that Iranian
missiles be precise to within 10 meters. He also underlined the IRGC's
advanced missile capability against naval vessels.
In addition, just prior to the November 24 deadline, on November 17,
the IRGC-affiliated Tasnimnews.com posted a diagram showing the ranges
of several Iranian missiles, up to 2,000 km, covering Greece, southern
Italy, southeast Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Russia,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Gulf states. The diagram emphasized the
Iranian missile threat to Israel and to U.S. military bases in the
region.
On November 26, two days after Iran and the P5+1 agreed to extend the
Joint Plan of Action to June 2015, Tasnimnews posted links to video
clips of the launch of 2000-km range Sejil ballistic missiles (download
the clip from MEMRI.org here); of 1,350-km range Qadr F and Qadr H missiles (here) and of 1,350-km range Shahab 3 missiles; of 300-km range Hormuz 1 and 2 missiles (here), of 300-km range Zelzal missiles (here and here), of 300-km range Zelzal Raad 307 missiles (here); and of the simultaneous launch of several ballistic missiles (here).
This paper will review at length statements by IRGC officials on
Iran's missiles, on the missile unit, on the missile threat to Israel
and to U.S. military bases in the region, and on the missile
capabilities of Hizbullah and the Palestinian resistance, which are now
armed with Iranian missile technology. It will also review statements by
Hizbullah deputy secretary general Naim Qassem on Iran's aid to
Hizbullah to arm itself with missiles against Israel.
Part I: Tasnim's Diagram Of Iranian Missiles' Striking Range Up To 2,000 Km, Including U.S. Military Bases
 Source: Multimedia.tasnimnews.com/Media/Gallery/560065.
The translation of the diagram is as follows:
Continue reading: Middle East Media Research Institute
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