The Iranian Defense Ministry said it has successfully tested a new generation of long-range ballistic missiles with Multiple Reentry Vehicle payloads and a laser-guided air-to-surface and surface-to-surface missile named Bina.
Iran's ballistic missile program has long been a source of concern for Western nations because it is capable of striking its arch-foe Israel.
“The new generation of ballistic missile with a fragmentation warhead, and a Bina laser-guided surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missile, have been successfully tested,” Defense Minister Hossein Dehgan said.
He said the new ballistic missile could “evade anti-missile systems” and was capable of “great destruction.”
The other missile can be fired from a plane or a boat to strike military targets with “great precision,” he added.
President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate elected last year on promises to engage the West diplomatically, congratulated the Iranian people and Supreme Guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over the tests, IRNA reported.
The UN Security Council, the United States and the European Union have long imposed sanctions on Iran's ballistic missile program.
Iranian officials have said they will not discuss the missile program at talks with world powers later this month on Tehran's controversial nuclear activities.
Source: FARS; IRNA: AFP
