Iran's satellite launch sparks new missile fear
27th January 2007, 7:30 WST
Iran is poised to launch a satellite - a step that could herald a new
dimension to Tehran's strategic abilities.
A recently assembled 30-tonne ballistic missile-turned space launcher
could also be used to test long-range missile technologies, Aviation
Week and Space Technology magazine said.
The Iranian space rocket "will lift off soon" with an Iranian
satellite, said Alaoddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian National
Security and Foreign Policy Commission, according to the magazine.
Mr Boroujerdi made the announcement in a speech to religious students
and clerics in Qom, where Iran conducts missile tests.
There is concern a launch could lead to an Iranian intercontinental
ballistic missile with a range of nearly 4000km, putting central
Europe, Russia, China and India within range.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also has an aggressive approach
to nuclear diplomacy with his fiery, anti-US speeches but has been
criticised in Iran recently for focusing too much on his anti-US
agenda.
Iran's new capabilities come at a time of heightened Western concern
over nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea and weeks after China
destroyed a satellite with a missile.
Iran's new launcher also highlights close technological ties between
it and North Korean missile programs, the magazine said, citing US
intelligence agencies.
US intelligence agencies believe the launcher is a derivation of
Iran's Shahab 3 missile, which has a range up to 1600km. Analysts with
think tank GlobalSecurity believe it could be a stepping stone to an
Iranian clone of the North Korean Taepodong 2C/3 missile that failed
in a launch last July.
The US Defence Intelligence Agency has said Iran could have the
capability of developing a 4800km missile by 2015.
"But ultimately, their space program aims to orbit reconnaissance
satellites like Israel's," Uzi Rubin, former head of the Israel
Missile Defence Organisation, was quoted saying in the magazine.
The planned launch would show off Iran's technical prowess and "be a
potent political and emotional weapon in the Middle East". "Orbiting
its own satellite would send a powerful message throughout the Muslim
world about the Shi'ite regime in Tehran," the article said.
The report coincides with the planned US deployment in Poland and the
Czech Republic of a system designed to intercept missile attacks from
Iran and North Korea. It already has monitoring satellites and
detection radar and missile interceptors in Alaska and California but
wants 10 more in Europe by 2011.
Iran is under fierce international criticism for its uranium
enrichment, which critics suspect masks a nuclear weapons program, and
the United Nations Security Council has approved sanctions over it.
WASHINGTON
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=29&ContentID=19801
.
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
