Iran’s army test-fires short-range missile

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s army test-fired a sophisticated shortrange missile on Sunday, state media reported.

The report by the official IRNA news agency quoted the chief of the army’s ground forces, Gen. Kioumars Heidari, as saying that the missile’s range was 186 miles.

Heidari said the “smart” missile is capable to work in under “any weather condition.” He did not say where the test took place.

Iran’s national army controls short-range missiles, although longer-range ones capable of traveling up to 1,250 miles — far enough to reach archenemy Israel and U.S. military bases — are controlled by the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

In a parallel development, deputy chief of the army Adm. Habibollah Sayyari told IRNA that Iran and Russia will hold a joint naval drill in northern part of the Indian Ocean in the “near future.”

Sayyari said the drill has aimed at “reinforcing security” in the region. This is the second such a drill since 2019, when the two nations held a four-day exercise alongside China’s navy.

Tehran has been seeking to step up military cooperation with Beijing and Moscow while under U.S.-led sanctions. Visits to Iran by Russian and Chinese naval representatives have also increased in recent years.

In recent months, Iran has increased its military drills as the country tries to pressure President Joe Biden to re-enter a previous nuclear accord that his predecessor, Donald Trump, abandoned. Biden has said America could re-enter the deal.

On Thursday, the Guard conducted a drill near Iraqi border using drones, helicopters and tanks.

Trump in 2018 unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the Iranian nuclear accord, in which Tehran had agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

When the U.S. then increased sanctions, Iran gradually and publicly abandoned the deal’s limits on its nuclear development.